50 years ago today, 'the summer blockbuster' was born

[Ali Gator]

50 years ago on June 20, 1975, the 'summer blockbuster' was born. Universal Pictures released a 'thriller' about a deadly shark coasting along a New England beach town, based on the 1974 best-seller by Peter Benchley. (Benchley was cowriter of the screenplay). The director was a largely unknown young man named Steven Spielberg (who had directed one television movie and one thatrical movie before this), who was soon regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, with most of his movies gaining the title of 'the greatest movies in history'. 

'Jaws' was filmed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard from May - October, 1974 on a budget of $9M.  It would go on to gross nearly half-billion dollars at the box office, and kept millions of movie-goers from swimming in the ocean waters for years to come. Universal Pictures took a major gamble by doing a 'wide release' that day, releasing it to over 400 theaters and drive-ins around the country (never done to that extreme before). They waited until the first day of summer, and heavily promoted it via television, and print ads (magazines and newspapers) for weeks before it opened. By July 25th, it expanded to 700 screens and then 900 screens by August 15 - unheard of for any movie at the time.