June 20 marks the 45th anniversary of the Movie Jaws. Instant classic and made me rethink my lack of fear about night swimming in the ocean.
There is a great documentary on the filming of the movie, worth watching for any fan.
From Wikipedia, some pretty amazing numbers.
Jaws opened in 409 theatres with a
record $7 million weekend
[134] and grossed a record $21,116,354 in its first 10 days
[135] recouping its production costs.
[136] It grossed $100 million in its first 59 days from 954 playdates.
[137] In just 78 days, it overtook
The Godfather as the highest-grossing film at the North American box office,
[123] sailing past that picture's earnings of $86 million
[138] and became the first film to earn $100 million in US
theatrical rentals.
[139] Its initial release ultimately brought in $123.1 million in rentals.
[136] Theatrical re-releases in 1976 and Summer 1979 brought its total rentals to $133.4 million.
[138]
The picture entered overseas release in December 1975,
[140] and its international business mirrored its domestic performance. It broke records in Singapore,
[141] New Zealand, Japan,
[142] Spain,
[143] and Mexico.
[144] On January 11, 1976,
Jaws became the highest-grossing film worldwide with rentals of $132 million, surpassing the $131 million earned by
The Godfather.
[145] By the time of the third film in 1983,
Variety reported that it had earned worldwide rentals of $270 million, from a gross of approximately $550 million.
[146]
Jaws was the
highest-grossing film of all time until
Star Wars, which debuted two years later.
Star Wars surpassed
Jaws for the U.S. record six months after its release and set a new global record in 1978.
[147][148] Adjusted for inflation,
Jaws has earned almost $2 billion worldwide at 2011 prices and is the second-most successful
franchise film after
Star Wars.
[149] In North America, it is the
seventh-highest-grossing movie of all time, with a total of $1.017 billion at current prices,
[150] based on an estimated 128,078,800 tickets sold.
[151] In the United Kingdom, it is the seventh-highest-grossing film to be released since 1975, earning the equivalent of over £70 million in 2009/10 currency,
[152] with admissions estimated at 16.2 million.
[153] Jaws has also sold 13 million tickets in Brazil, the second-highest attendance ever in the country behind
Titanic.
[154]
On television, the
American Broadcasting Company aired it for the first time on November 4, 1979 right after its theatrical re-release.
[155] The first U.S. broadcast received a
Nielsen rating of 39.1 and attracted 57 percent of the total audience, the second-highest televised movie audience at the time behind
Gone with the Wind and the fourth-highest rated.
[156][157] In the United Kingdom, 23 million people watched its inaugural broadcast in October 1981, the
second-biggest TV audience ever for a feature film behind
Live and Let Die.
[158]
