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The Movie Industry's First Summer Blockbuster Turns 50
The summer of 1975 was a terrifying one if you were trying to enjoy a beach vacation — and it's all Stephen Spielberg's fault.
The movie Jaws is turning 50 this year, and there are huge celebrations ahead, according to Variety. The film will air on NBC on June 20 with a three-hour special, including "a new, special introduction." At the ballpark, baseball fans will also see "custom scoreboard content, exclusive fan giveaways, and more" at home games for the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, and Philadelphia Phillies between June 20 and 22.
If that's not enough, Peacock subscribers will have the opportunity to view shark-themed content from June 15 to July 14. Movies like Piranha, 47 Meters Down, Night Swim, and Captain Phillips were curated for the special collection.
Of course, there will be plenty of merchandise available to consumers including a 50th anniversary edition of Jaws on 4K, Blu-ray, and digital beginning June 17 with a Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Story documentary included. Fans can also expect toys, T-shirts, and collectibles out at retail.
Jaws is considered the movie industry's first summer blockbuster and stayed at the top of the box office for most of the summer of 1975, per NBC. It held the record for the "highest-grossing movie of all time" for two years until Star Wars took the top position.
It was a troubled shoot due to the difficulties of filming in the open waters and the budget quickly skyrocketed. Producer David Brown explained in the 2004 book, Movie Moguls Speak: Interviews with Top Film Producers, that the initial budget "was $4 million and the picture wound up costing $9 million."
The mechanical shark also kept breaking down, but Spielberg and stars Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw meticulously planned out the characters to give it a realistic feel, per Mental Floss. In the end, the technical problems led to a career-defining film for Spielberg.
'I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark,' Spielberg told CBS News in 2015. 'So, I just went back to Alfred Hitchcock: 'What would Hitchcock do in a situation like this?' ... It's what we don't see which is truly frightening.'The Movie Industry's First Summer Blockbuster Turns 50 first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 12, 2025
