Jaws
Spielberg's Role: Director
US Release Date: 1975
Jaws
was a blockbuster in its time, but more importantly it
gave Hollywood a new perspective on what they were doing.
Jaws was the first of the mass marketed super movies that
we come to expect from studios today. Before Jaws, the
studios cranked out a lot of small movies at low cost
which only lasted a few weeks in the theaters. Jaws cost
only $8.5 million to make and made $130 million in
rentals in North America alone. Jaws brought the big
movie concept which paved the way for movies like Star
Wars, E.T. and eventually Jurassic Park and Independence
Day.
Jaws was followed by a couple
sequels including the Jaws 3D attraction at Universal
Studios. If Spielberg had anything to do with these
movies, he has hidden it well. (although another
Spielberg film, Back to the Future III pokes fun of the
sequels with their Jaws 13 billboard which swallows McFly).
The big break wasn't just
Spielberg's. Roy Scheider and Richard Deyfuss both stared
in the movie with Robert Shaw, neither of which has had
trouble getting a job since.
In June of 1998, Jaws was
chosen as one of the 100 best American films in the 100
year history of cinema by the American Film Institute.
Steven Spielberg had more movies honored than any other
director, with 5. The other 4 movies were Raiders of
the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind,
E.T., and Schindlers List. Jaws was
ranked 48th.
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