From slashfilm, Steven Spielberg’s JAWS was released in movie theaters thirty five years ago today, on June 20th 1975. At the time, movies were released slowly, in a few theaters in major cities. As word of mouth spread, distributors would expand the release to more and more markets. Jaws was the first film to have a “wide release”, opening at the same time across the country, which at the time ment a whopping 464 theaters on opening night, with a national marketing campaign.
Jaws grossed more than $7 million that weekend, and went on to gross more than $470 million worldwide — the highest grossing film of the time (knocked off the top spot when Star Wars was released two years later). At a time when a the average movie ticket price was only $2.05, that means that over 250 million tickets were sold. To give you an idea, Pixar’s largest grossing film to date Finding Nemo grossed $867.9 million worldwide in 2003, at a time before 3D when the average movie ticket was still $6, and even then, something like 145 million tickets were sold. If adjusted for ticket inflation, Jaw’s worldwide box office total would be near $2 billion.
The reason why Box Office is significant is that Jaws gave birth to the Blockbuster, and is considered one of the first “high concept” films. But not only was it a high concept blockbuster, it was critically acclaimed. The film currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And unless Armond White begins reviewing older classic films (god, I hope that never happens), it is likely to stay that way.
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