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issue INSIDE THIS 90 Years of Inspiration PAGE 1
DIY Foods That Save Money PAGE 2 Spotlight on Mary Beth Saldin PAGE 2 The 4th Element of Money PAGE 3
Dad’s Whiskey Burger PAGE 3
We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Theater PAGE 4
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 enjoy the countryside. For others, summer is a season littered with bone-rattling explosions, labyrinthine superhero crossovers, and cute, catchphrase- spouting animated characters. All this is just to say that summer movie blockbusters are a really big deal, raking in billions of dollars each year. But it wasn’t always this way. Back in the early ’70s, ticket sales consistently fell during the summer months. After all, who wanted to sit inside on a beautiful day when you could be outside playing?
All that changed when Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” hit the screen on June 20, 1975 and sent every beach- goer scrambling out of the water and into theaters. Many credit the movie’s enormous success — grossing $470 million worldwide — on its thrilling story, and certainly that was part of it. As “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.”
main character. Before its release, Universal already smelled blood in the water, giving three times the usual number of interviews during filming. A preview at Long Beach, with executives Lew Wasserman and Sidney Sheinberg tape-recording the audience’s reaction turned into “an unprecedented $700,000 dollars’ worth of TV advertising,” according to Andrews. 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 onto the big screen, we’re not complaining. We’re too enthralled by what’s happening at the movies.
But, in fact, “Jaws” is as indebted to timing and marketing as to its toothy
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