WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER THEATER ‘Jaws’ and the Rise of the Summer Blockbuster
For many, summer is a great time to get outside and bask in the sunshine. For thousands of others, it signals a season littered with bone- rattling explosions, labyrinthine superhero crossovers, and
You can try to pin the movie’s enormous success — grossing $470 million worldwide — on its thrilling story, and certainly, that was part of it. As the Financial Times writer Nigel Andrews puts it, “Jaws” gave Spielberg “the template for the perfect blockbuster. Create a colossal baddie … and a colossal hero … [and] follow by natural law.” In fact, “Jaws” is as indebted to its timing and marketing as to the titular prehistoric fish. Before its release, Universal already smelled the blood in the water, giving three times the usual number of interviews during its shooting. They went on to give a preview at Long Beach, with executives Lew Wasserman and Sidney Sheinberg tape-recording the audience’s reaction. These tapes then went into “an unprecedented $700,000 dollars’ worth of TV advertising,” according to Andrews. After all that, it’s no surprise that “Jaws” ended up the highest-grossing film in history — that is, until “Star Wars” followed suit with a summer opening and smashed its record, building a bandwagon for every studio to jump on and establishing a genuine American tradition. Nowadays, you can’t throw a beach ball in June without hitting some spandex-clad superhuman. But, even as the trailer for “Transformers 15” comes on, we’re not complaining. We’re too enthralled by what’s happening on screen.
catchphrase-spouting animated characters.
All this is just to say that summer blockbusters are a big deal, raking in billions of dollars each year. According to Investopedia, “Ticket
sales for May, June, and July accounted for 39 percent” of the 2008’s total sales. That may not sound like a whole lot, until you consider
that “more than one-third of annual sales
occur during a single quarter of the year.”
It wasn’t always this way. Back in the early ’70s, ticket sales consistently flagged during the summer months. That is, until Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws“ hit the screen on June 20, 1975, and sent every beach bum on the coast scrambling out of the water and scurrying into theaters.
What Causes Truck Accidents?
Truck accidents in the United States affect thousands of lives each year. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, large trucks are involved in nearly 300,000 crashes every year. That’s a scary statistic, especially for anyone who gets nervous pulling up next to a semi on the freeway. Trucks are particularly dangerous due to their size, and most of the accidents they’re involved in affect multiple cars. If you’ve been involved in a truck accident, you should know the potential causes as you look at legal action. So, what unique factors make truck drivers more susceptible to accidents? For one, there’s fatigue. Drivers average over 2,500 miles — the distance from Los Angeles to New York City — every week. They have some regulations to avoid overwork, but they can still drive 11 hours every day with those regulations. Needless to say, it’s easy to imagine drivers getting fatigued logging in so many hours. With all that time at the wheel, distractions also play a big part. Many drivers entertain themselves with cellphones and even videos. It’s not safe in a passenger vehicle, so it certainly isn’t safe while hauling 10-ton loads.
That’s the thing — when a vehicle is larger, the potential danger gets larger. Every car has blind spots, but not the way semis do. All cars have the potential for equipment failure, but when a truck experiences that, the result is more severe.
Big trucks usually belong to big companies. When you’re faced with legal action after a truck accident, it pays to work with someone who has experience taking on these big companies. If you’ve been injured in an accident, give us a call!
www.joneshilllaw.com 2
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