> how big of a deal Terminator 2 was and how big movie releases can be. Like, nothing in the MCU era or the Star Wars prequels and sequels comes remotely close

I'm in that age range and I lived through T2 and Endgame and I'll have to disagree.

T2 is one of my favorite movies of all time but experiencing the Endgame premiere, as a hardcore fan, with the other hardcore fans, was something else, it had the whole teather howling during the climax.

I also get that T2 is "easier" to enjoy in the sense that you need to watch like 22 movies to really get into Endgame.

Endgame is basically "camp" (though large as camps go) at this point, and I mean that in a nice way, like how Rocky Horror Picture Show evoke similar audience reactions.

But T2 references were everywhere and people not in to movies or action or sci-fi or pop culture knew and know them.