The Legacy of Jaws: 50 Years of the Blockbuster
Oxford Reference defines a blockbuster as “a film with an extremely high production and marketing budget that attains considerable commercial success.” In the present day, this includes movies like Avengers: Endgame, Barbie, or Sinners. However, they are far from the first, the most popular, or the most impactful blockbusters.
Those titles belong to the classic 1975 thriller movie Jaws by Steven Spielberg—the first summer blockbuster according to the Guinness Book of World Records— which has celebrated its 50th anniversary and has been re-released to theaters.
Jaws became the highest-grossing film of its time, becoming the first movie to earn over $100 million —about $260 million— at the American box office within just 60 days of release and ultimately grossing more than $470 million worldwide. This was achieved on a production budget that started at $4 million but eventually ballooned to $9 million. For context, in today’s economy, Jaws:
- Cost approximately $54.2 million to make.
- Made over $602 million in the U.S alone.
- Grossed over $2.8 billion globally.
Aside from its economic success, its impact on pop culture and filmmaking cannot be ignored.
When Jaws was released, people lined up around city blocks, waiting to see this movie. By the end of the movie’s summer release in 1975, 21% of Americans had seen it, with 15% having planned to see it. Colloquially, this is where the term ‘blockbuster’ can trace its origin back to. Even more so, the sub-term ‘summer blockbuster’. To this day many people still go to watch it and love the movie.
“The movie feels campy at times, but I absolutely love the movie for what it is. I rewatched it consistently, and I watched it on re-release. The big screen just made the experience so different than just watching it on the T.V or phone or laptop,” said senior Juanpablo Maldonado.
It was so popular and well-received that it won multiple awards, having been the 1976 Golden Globes winner for Best Original Score in a Motion Picture and won the 48th Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Music (Original Score), and Best Sound.
Ultimately, it changed how movies were released because the practices it established are still implemented today. How many high-concept, big-budget movies have since been made to feel like the main events of the year? Take Star Wars, which came out two years later, and cemented that the formula worked.
Since then, resources have been poured into movies desperate to become the next big summer blockbuster, with summer becoming the most lucrative time period for the business. The biggest example is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which typically releases movies during the summer or in close proximity.
In terms of pop culture, it was the movie that propelled Steven Spielberg from an upcoming rising director into international fame. Without Jaws, Spielberg would have never directed movies like Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Indiana Jones. All movies known globally and constantly referenced in the media. Who can’t hum the Jaws theme, or see a T.Rex and think of Jurassic Park? These movies would have been drastically different—with different scores, actors, scenes, and use of effects— had anyone else directed the movie
The film’s impact on pop culture has been so great that it has even been recognized by the Library of Congress, which selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2001. The American Film Institute has even listed it among the 50 greatest films in history
It has even shaped modern views on sharks, as it is credited with creating fear of sharks by making it seem more common than they actually are. In real life, there are only an average of 64 incidents annually.
This led to negative real-world consequences for the species, such as shark killings, tournaments, and commercial fishing that almost wiped out the shark population along the West Coast.
“Honestly, if you knew nothing about Jaws it’d make you terrified of sharks because the movie itself is a perfect example of messing around and finding out. The mayor messed around and disregarded Brody and caused the shark to eat more people. Honestly, I was a bit shocked to find out that sharks aren’t even that deadly all things considered. Jaws made them seem much more violent,” said senior Lawrence Lorenzo.
Even Spielberg himself feels he shoulders the blame. “That’s one of the things I still fear. Not to get eaten by a shark, but those sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen that happened after 1975,” he said in an interview with BBC. “To this day, I regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that.”
In the end, Jaws was more than just the first summer blockbuster. It was a cultural phenomenon that redefined the film industry, elevated its director to legendary status, and left a complicated legacy that still ripples through pop culture, cinema, and even the natural world today.
