The movie Jaws opened on June 20, 1975. Directed by 27-year-old Steven Spielberg, Jaws was filmed on location at Martha's Vineyard, Edgartown, Chilmark, and Menensha, all in Massachusetts. The 50th anniversary is bringing tourists to all those places, with a huge celebration taking place in Martha's Vineyard. Hotels and events for this weekend are sold out, but events will continue through the summer.
Unlike other films at the time, Jaws opened nationwide in 409 theaters at once and made $7 million in its first weekend. It was the first movie to reach $100 million at the box office, and that only took 59 days. Jaws' success is often attributed to the fact that the monster shark wasn't actually seen for most of the movie, raising the suspense factor. That was because the mechanical shark prop rarely worked, forcing Spielberg to work around the problem. A lot of credit must also be given to John Williams' musical score featuring that familiar two-note motif.
Jaws was based on the novel by Peter Benchley, who came to regret writing the book because of the shark frenzy that it sparked. Great white sharks were not only feared, but mercilessly hunted. Benchley spent the rest of his life advocating for sharks and for other marine conservation projects. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Roger Kastel)
