In this article, author Joseba Gabilondo discusses Steven Spielberg’s three highest grossing movies: Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park. Each of these three movies shares something in common with the others – non-human protagonists. Gabilondo addresses the influences of these three characters and how Hispanic and world cultures are affected by the globalization of Spielberg’s “monsters.”

Gabilondo begins with a discussion about how the shark, alien, and dinosaur, all seem to dominate the other characters in Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park, respectively. Furthermore, he points out that the main characters tend to be “white, masculine, heterosexual Anglo-American.” Consequently, when these characters eventually expose of or send away the associated “monster,” the stereotypical role reemerges in the spotlight of the film.

The effect of this process, Gabilondo writes, “...is a globalization that parallels that of America’s neo-imperialist supremacy.” For example, the shark in Jaws could be reduced to just a national problem (“man against nature”), thus excluding other nations from the situation. However, the alien in E.T. is most certainly a problem that must be applied globally. Finally, Jurassic Park actually takes place outside of the U.S., portraying Spielberg’s eventual globalization of his “monsters.”

According to Gabilondo, Jaws was not intended for audiences abroad as much as Spielberg’s later films, which is a logical conclusion because as he gained more experience and success, Spielberg was able to expand his horizons and produce movies with global appeal.

In this scholarly paper, Arthur De Vany and W. David Walls discuss, among many other things, how the studios used the “blockbuster” strategy in which advertising, box office ranking, and movie stars play integral roles in a film’s success. They acknowledge Jaws as the first movie to employ this technique on a national level, using television advertising in addition to a nationwide release.

According to this theory, the opening of the movie is the most important event in a film’s life. Producer Robert Evans compared it to a parachute jump, “If it doesn’t open, you are dead.” De Vany and Walls believe that if the theory were true, the choices of early movie-goers directly affect the decisions of people who see the movie later. Furthermore, a strong opening weekend or week can lead to a “dominant position in the film market.”

Jaws is indeed a strong example of the “blockbuster” strategy of marketing because it was the highest grossing film at the time (dominating the box office), and created a national buzz about the film, which included television advertising. However, Jaws was somewhat different in that it did not have any big stars, but rather quality actors on the rise in the industry.

There are people who refute the “blockbuster” strategy and argue that the success of a film depends almost entirely on the early audience of the film and how those moviegoers express their opinions to friends, family and acquaintances. In closing, De Vany and Walls agree that the aspects of a successful film depend both on a strong opening as well as positive feedback from the early viewers.

This article focuses on sharks and how Americans’ views on sharks have evolved since around the 1970s. Author Stephen Papson writes about how the use of documentary films on Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week 90” has shaped the terror-filled relationship between humans and sharks. Papson also acknowledges Jaws as the first movie to “elevate the shark to celebrity status.”

As Papson states, it is easy to be mislead by the manner in which sharks were represented in early films due to the fact that many moviegoers’ first shark encounters occurred while watching one of those films. In Jaws, Steven Spielberg uses an oversized replica of a great white shark in conjunction with various “Hitchcockian devices” with which to involve the audience in the film while simultaneously maintaining a certain sense of reality so as to not lose the viewers.

However, 1971 marked the first significant contribution in film pertaining to sharks, particularly the great white shark -- Peter Gimbel and James Lipscomb’s documentary “Blue Water, White Death.” Many early films that involved sharks, including Gimbel and Lipscomb’s film, regarded sharks as evil man-eating machines. It was Spielberg’s Jaws that first cast sharks in a different light. The shark in Jaws was given “personality and internationality” which in turn led to the international media coverage of new shark encounters (including Time Magazine’s June 23, 1975 cover page). The opening scene, in which the audience experiences the action from the shark’s perspective, draws on humans’ primal fear of being attacked and eaten by a shark.

As one can see, Americans have been educated on the nature of sharks primarily through documentary film, but movies like Jaws helped in attaining global coverage of shark activity that eventually led to the production of “Shark Week 90,” giving Americans a trustworthy source of information on sharks. 

In this article, James Surowiecki analyzes the marketing scheme of big Hollywood films like Jaws. In doing so, he looks at how blockbusters have been marketed since Jaws first opened in 1975. Among the factors discussed, the opening weekend and the behavior of the moviegoers are the most important.

In 1975, Stephen Farber, a movie critic, wrote that the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was due to an “aggressive media blitz” that utilized prime-time television advertising along with an unusual national opening weekend at over 400 theaters across the country. Farber believed that audience members were manipulated into seeing the film and that the studio executives controlled what they wanted people to see.

As Surowiecki writes, Hollywood wanted to believe that the success of Jaws could be imitated by employing the same marketing strategies because there were huge profit opportunities. The studios believed that by giving certain films “a big enough push out of the gate” that enough people would go see it without regard for the actual quality of the movie’s content. This is called a “non-informative information cascade” in which the actions of the later moviegoers are based on the early moviegoers, who were persuaded to see the film due to the massive advertising campaign. Unfortunately, there have been many blockbusters that bring in large profits early on, followed by mediocre numbers in the following weeks (i.e. The Matrix: Reloaded).

However, as De Vany and Walls state in their in-depth study of what makes a blockbuster, they find that a big budget and expensive advertising campaign may make it possible for a big opening; its success truly depends on how the audience rates the film. This strategy has garnered some media criticism, but Surowicki argues Hollywood is sensible because this method increases revenues in a shorter time so that they can remove the film from theaters in order to keep a larger percentage of the profits.

In this article, the psychological appeal of monsters, demons, and other intimidating and scary creatures is analyzed and studied using 1,166 surveys from people with ages ranging from 16-91. Overall, the most frequent stated reason for liking the monsters was due to the superhuman powers and the “ability to show us the dark side of human nature.”

Movie monsters in horror films became more prevalent when the Production Code was abolished around 1960, Hollywood found new freedom in being able to shock and awe its audiences. Along with the new found autonomy in the horror genre, new technological advances made it easier to produce realistic special effects. The shark in Jaws is an excellent example of how Hollywood used technology to produce one of the top 25 scariest monsters in movie history (according to the study in this paper). However, as horror films became more gruesome and realistic, it was the younger audience members that became hooked; older members started to stay away as the amount of shock overshadowed the suspense in horror films.

Jaws is a portrayal of an excellent balance between both shock and suspense, and consequently the shark was in the top 25 movie monsters for all three age groups in the study: young, middle, and older. Additionally, the shark’s carnal behavior allows the audience to view some shocking footage that not many people experience. Thus, it is not a stretch to assert that Jaws is, in part, considered such a remarkable film because it appeals to people of all ages (including both males and females).

In this New York Times article, Terrance Rafferty explains why he believes that Jaws was the first summer movie to cause the summer blockbusters that this generation has come to know all too well. He argues that Jaws gave studio executives the idea to target youth audiences during the summer months and even compares Hollywood to Amity, the setting of the film.

It is easy to see why Jaws was such a hit when it opened in the summer of 1975 because it was filled with drama, action and above all – horror. It was the first American film to earn over $100 million and the studios made certain not to miss out on the huge possible profits awaiting them in the summer blockbuster area. Previously, older audiences were the aim for action movies, but the younger generations quickly became the target for this genre. Rafferty jokes that the executives must have seen dollar signs after seeing the immense success of Jaws. He also feels that in today’s context, one could compare the mayor not wanting to close the beaches to how the Hollywood studio executives refused to remove box office duds like Speed 2.

Although Jaws is a great movie, Rafferty states that although some people are quick to criticize it because it was such an impetus for some awful summer films released after Jaws, they should realize it was the studio executives who are to blame. Spielberg even made apologetic comments on how the film affected the industry, trying to downplay how ingenious his use of terror and suspense really were.

Rafferty puts it well when he says that Jaws should not be blamed for its lackluster descendants because if all of the summer films were of equal quality, nobody would be complaining.

In this article, Amitai Etzioni focuses not on the monstrous great white shark, but “Hooper” the oceanographer played by Richard Dreyfuss. Hooper is likened to Dr. Strangelove in his methods with which he tracks the shark. Using these views, Etzioni argues why Hooper is the best role in Jaws.

As opposed to how the traditional scientist is depicted, Hooper integrates emotion and feeling into his job. For example, Etzioni recalls the scene where he shows his humanness after seeing the dismembered girl, but is able to still fulfill his job requirements by collecting the necessary information to help hunt down the shark later in the film.

On the other hand, Etzioni also describes how the other roles in Jaws are somewhat cliché, lacking substance. The mayor cares about the profits from the tourists instead of the safety of his beaches and the police chief shows incompetence when deciding whether or not to follow the mayor’s unethical orders. It is apparent that the nature of these characters further highlights the positive qualities of Hooper, which in Etzioni’s eyes makes him a heroic figure in Jaws.

Possessing the innate traits necessary to capture a man-eating shark, Hooper plays the role of hero while still upholding certain standards from the scientific community. Etzioni also includes in the end of his article that the character of Hooper may not be embraced by all of the scientific community, but he is easily accepted by the audience, as he is the only one capable of ending the terror caused by Jaws.

On this website, one can find in-depth information pertaining to some of the biggest films ever produced. However, I am going to focus on the 1970s section because Jaws can be found on the page where the movies from 1975 are located. In addition to critiquing the film, reviewer Tim Dirks gives a detailed explanation of major scenes and key dialogue.

Dirks describes Steven Spielberg’s Jaws as a “…masterful, visceral and realistic science-fiction suspense/horror-disaster film” and even compared it to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Additionally, there is a list of five sources that Dirks tells us both Benchley and Spielberg used in the writing of the book and the making of the film. With these resources, one can easily draw parallels to Moby Dick or even 19^th-century literature.

Furthermore, there is a section that includes information and notes on how the production schedule was delayed and other such details. Along with these facts, Dirks also writes about the setting in which Jaws takes place – Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Perhaps one of the best features of the article on the film is that Dirks includes the historical significance of how Jaws was released nationwide with the aid of prime-time television advertising. He also states that the film was an impetus for future “blockbusters” that were to be released in the summer. The film Jaws is obviously an important Hollywood film, and this website gives one an excellent starting point from which to begin collecting information or data.

This article has to do with video games that are based on movies and the profitability of these games. In particular, many video game companies are looking to acquire licenses for older, successful movies. The reason behind this is that the companies, like Electronic Arts and Buena Vista Games, see a huge potential market in selling video games based on popular films because they can market the games to the people who loved the movie.

However, as P.J. McNealy, video game analyst at American Technology Research, states, it is sometimes a difficult decision whether or not to make a game based on a new Hollywood movie or an established “Hollywood intellectual property” with a built-in audience. Games such as “Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon” had minimal success because the audience that appreciated the movie did not necessarily want to play the game.

The movie Jaws is a good example of an older movie that had huge success, thus Majesco decided to produce a game based on the film. Additionally, the release date was timed with the release of the 30^th anniversary edition of Jaws. By combining these two products, the company hoped to see interest in one market lead to interest in the other (i.e. video games and DVD).

The Vice President of Majesco stated in the article that “By adding the Jaws license, one of the best-known movies of all time, we instantly gave our game a better chance to reach the mass-market gamer, while allowing us to delve more into character and story.” Players will be able to control the man-eating shark as well as experience a different story line based on the blockbuster hit. The video game market adds another reason to the lengthy list of why Jaws and other popular action movies are able to have such lasting impacts on audiences because the games offer more action and information to the fans of the original films.

In this article, Joanne Cantor discusses Jaws along with other famously frightening films that have scared audiences for years. Among the reasons cited by Cantor and her research, emotional impact is a recurring topic.

The responses that included Jaws all had similar analysis of the effects of the film on the viewer. As Cantor notes, many of the students wrote about how the film personally affected them as opposed to others. There were two main categories of emotional effects: those that occurred when the subject was awake and those that took place during “bedtime” hours.

Movies such as Poltergeist, The Blair Witch Project, and Scream share such characteristics, which may be one reason why all of these films have had such documented success in the industry. In particular, Jaws had the most influence on people in the water, with 65% of viewers reporting interference with swimming. Additionally, 43% of the 83% of viewers who cited life-changing effects had ongoing problems from Jaws.       

In her conclusion, Cantor explains that in addition to the emotional effects from Jaws, there might be an evolutionary reason for why people are so affected of traumatic experiences (i.e. horror films). She cites LeDoux’s theory that we have accurate memories of these experiences so as to identify life-threatening situations in the future and act quicker and more rationally.