Before Jaws the studios viewed the summer as the doldrum months to be filled with kid flicks and cheap "B" exploitation films. Movies that had opened in limited release the winter and spring before, might make it to neighborhood theaters but the big movie houses were still holding on to first run features they had been showing for weeks. Prior to "Jaws" a big event movie would open in one or two theaters in NYC and LA and slowly work their way to the rest of the country over the course of the year. If a movie was really big it could play for months and months at first run house before opening wider.
On June 20, 1975 Universal changed all that with the "wide release" of Jaws and the movie business would never be the same. The movie was released nationaly with an unheard of media blitz. Never before had a studio run coast to coast print and televison ads to advertise a single film. The impact was immediate. Instead of a film building an audience through word of mouth and critical appraisal, it built its audince in one massive release.
Today with movies opening on thousands of screens in a single weekend Jaws' initial opening of 464 films seems paltry, but by mid-summer it was playing at 675 theaters and was the largest distribution of a single film to movie houses at that time. Jaws became the first film to earn 100 million dollars at the box office during it's initial run. It easily passed the box office record holder at that time, The Exorcist, and became the highest grossing film of all time. It held that record until 1977, when Star Wars arrived. In 1975 Jaws dominated the summer and the audience went back for repeated viewings. Now we have a "blockbuster" opening every weekend and films lose 50% of their audience the following week. The contest in Hollywood is to have the best opening day, the best opening weekend and the best opening week. In 1975 Jaws ended it's run making $100 million dollars. Today a big film is expected to do that it's first weekend.
While most summer movies fade quickly Jaws is widely considered one of the best films ever made. It set Steven Spielberg on the path to success and ushered in the dawn of the"New Hollywood" where the blockbuster would reign supreme.
I saw Jaws with my parents and younger sister. We were on vacation in the Hapmtons and saw Jaws on my 15th bithday (August 15) at the UA Southapmton Theater. The theater is still operating today, but was divided up into a multiplex in the early '80s.
Here is an add from that summer.
Look for more postings about the summer blockbuster phenomenon and discussions about individual films.
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