Release

The film is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "irreverent humor throughout".The rating had been expected by the production staff.However, the British Board of Film Classification passed the film as a PG with no cuts made.A BBFC spokeswoman said of Bart's very brief nude scene that "natural nudity with no sexual content is acceptable in PG films."The film was released in most territories on July 27, 2007, and in Australia on July 26.The British release was initially moved a day forward to July 26,only to then be moved a further day to July 25.

Fox held a competition between sixteen Springfields across the United States to host the American premiere,with Springfield, Minnesota dropping out on May 31, 2007.Each Springfield produced a film, explaining why their town should host the premiere, with the results being decided via a vote on the USA Today website.The winner was announced to be Springfield, Vermont on July 10, which hosted the "yellow carpet" world premiere of the film on July 21.Each of the other fourteen entrants held their own smaller screenings of the film on July 26.

Before its release, the film received a nomination in the category "Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet" at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, but it lost to Transformers.The film's trailer won a Golden Trailer Award in the category "Best Animated/Family Film Trailer" at the 8th Annual Golden Trailer Awards.

A sneak peek of the film's DVD was included on The Simpsons The Complete Tenth Season DVD boxset. It included an unfinished deleted scene of the townspeople singing the Springfield Anthem.

The film took $30.7 million on its opening day in the United States, the sixteenth highest grossing opening day, and third highest non-sequel opening.It grossed a combined total of $74 million in its opening weekend, taking it to the top of the box office,and making it the fifth highest opening weekend for a July release ever, and highest July opening for a non-sequel,thus outperforming the expectation of $40 million that Fox had for the release.It set several American box office records, including the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a non-CG animated film, surpassing The Lion King; the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film based on a television series, surpassing Mission Impossible II; and overall it had the third highest grossing opening weekend for an animated film, behind Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third.It opened at the top of the international box office taking $96 million from seventy-one overseas territories, including $27.8 million in the United Kingdom, Fox's second highest opening ever in the country.It helped break the record for the highest weekend attendance to British cinemas, as 5.5 million people went to see a film that weekend, with 2.6 million seeing The Simpsons Movie.In Australia, it grossed AU$13.2 million, the biggest opening for an animated film and third largest opening weekend in the country.As of August 22, 2007 the film has a worldwide gross of $438.4 million.