This Year, We Celebrate 50 Years of the Original Summer Blockbuster

On 20 June 1975, Steven Spielberg’s thriller on the waves changed Hollywood forever. Jaws, with its iconic soundtrack and superb pneumatically-powered prop shark, had everyone scared of going back into the water. Now, we’re closing in on its 50th anniversary, which will doubtlessly culminate in a return to cinemas for the loveable Brody, Quint, and Hooper, and the mighty great white itself.

As we dive into the hype that's sure to bubble up to the surface this Summer, it’s well worth looking at the impact the film has had on Hollywood and beyond. Jaws changed the state of play for the industry, as well as public perceptions of the awesome animal, launched an endless swarm of imitative creations, and brought sharks into the spotlight, for better and for worse.

Creating the Summer Blockbuster

The common way of thinking in the movie-making business used to be that studios shouldn’t release their biggest films in the Summer because audiences wouldn't come to see it. Instead, they’d be out and about or on holiday. Jaws changed that. Its heavy advertising campaign that emphasised the simple premise and the action and adventure of the film, along with a wide-spanning release, helped to make it the highest-grossing film of all time in 1975.

On a $9 million budget, not only did Jaws manage to breach the $100 million mark in two months, but it finally gobbled up over $470 million worldwide. It established that the limited initial release for the biggest projects in the colder months wasn’t the optimal way to reap the most money from audiences. It shifted the balance of power from filmmakers to studios, where blockbuster potential overrode the auteur.

In doing so, however, Jaws helped to vilify sharks. Known as apex predators in the oceans already, Jaws pivoted the public angle towards them being full-on human-hunting beasts of the deep. It made for a tense and scary film, but too many took the depiction as gospel. In the years since, the author of the novel the film’s based on, Peter Benchley, as well as the movie’s maker have expressed their regret for how Jaws has contributed to the hunting of sharks.

An Increased Adoration of Sharks

Over the 50 years since Jaws’ release, the perception of sharks has gone from one that’s fear-driven to one that’s much more centred on adoration. People are in awe of sharks and embrace their place as apex predators in the oceans. So, despite these negative consequences, we likely have Jaws to thank for many of today's entertainment pieces centred on sharks which audiences continue to flock to.

This spans from the annual film slate to online gaming platforms. Among the online slots available to the bingo community, you’ll spot Beware the Shark sitting prominently among the top games. It’s a very popular game for bubbly bingo players to spin between sessions of bingo, ranking even above a game that’s possibly another Spielberg-inspired top theme, 10,000 BC Jurassic 10K Ways.

Beyond online gaming, sharks are everywhere in film and television. In 2025 alone, the 50th year since Jaws, we could see Into the Deep, Beneath the Storm, and Deep Water hit cinemas. Plus, on 6 July, Shark Week will return to Discovery. In 2024, the famed week of shark documentaries and stunt shows amassed over 25 million total viewers. People are obsessed with sharks, and Jaws has certainly played a hand in that.

In the summer of 2025, Jaws will turn 50. The film has stood the test of time and truly changed the entertainment world. When it knifes its way back towards the box office in June, it’d be well worth seeing it in the new revamped form.