How 'Jaws' gave birth to the summer movie franchise

It was 1970-something, and movie audiences were looking for the film equivalent of franchise fast food, and they didn’t even know it. Movies were basically one-offs, a single entry with no continuing story. The word sequel was tossed around Hollywood, but it was very rare. In fact, even the sequels that were produced in the majority of the 70’s didn’t even have numbers like 2 or 3 in the titles. “The Godfather Part II” (1974) was considered a continuation of the original and “Planet of the Apes” (1968) spawned 4 sequels, but their titles “Beneath”, “Escape”, “Conquest” and “Battle” all incorporated the original title without numbers. It wasn’t until the summer of 1975 that audiences experienced their first blockbuster in “Jaws” that Hollywood realized that they could capitalize on this phenomenon’s popularity.

Today, blockbusters and franchises come to theaters pre-made with the next installment in mind. We are teased with mid-credit scenes, post-credit scenes, Easter eggs planted throughout, setting up sequels and spinoffs. Even when a series of movies seems to end, there is always the possibility of the reboot many years later. This was not always the case; sequels were organically based on audiences love of the characters and their further adventures. My opinion is that “Jaws” started all this in 1975, not only becoming the first summer blockbuster, but creating a franchise and in the process opening up the possibilities for studios to unleash sequels and franchises for years to come.

Jaws (1975)- Director: Steven Spielberg. Release Date: June 20, 1975. Box-Office: $260.0 million domestic, $471.2 million worldwide.

I don’t have to tell you that “Jaws” is one of the best movies ever made. It has cemented its place in movie history and still has terrifying value to this day. I had seen “Jaws” on TV, Betamax, VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray over the years, but it wasn’t until 2012 that I saw “Jaws” in the theater. This was a 4K Restoration that played at the Tivoli in Downers Grove, IL where the audience gasped, laughed and cheered during all the right spots. “Jaws” never looked better, and I was equally impressed with the gorgeous 4K Blu-Ray at home when it is released in 2020. The troubled production is as legendary as the movie itself; the shark didn’t work, filming on the ocean was a nightmare, cast, crew and the studio were losing patience and confidence with its young director Steven Spielberg.

Steven Spielberg, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw on the set of Jaws

But all that considered and once it was released, it was nothing short of a masterpiece. Critics applauded it and summer audiences flocked to see it in theaters. The score and shark theme by composer John Williams became legendary. This movie played, and played, in theaters for over a year. As the lines at theaters grew and the box-office rose week after week, studio Universal saw an opportunity to capitalize with merchandise. Everything from t-shirts, board games, video games, toys, tie-in books and more flooded the market. “Jaws” was being parodied on TV and other studios were cashing in on cheap knockoffs: “Mako: The Jaws of Death” (1976), “Orca” (1977), “Tintorera: Killer Shark” (1977) and more. Universal even gave birth to a Jaws Attraction on their studio tram tour that still a part of the tour today complete with the Amity Harbor background. The novel, for which the film is based written by Peter Benchley, was a complete and stand-alone story and the end of the movie did not inspire any continuation of the story. No post-credits scene showing baby sharks off in the distance or a bloody Quint rising up out of the water with revenge on his mind. No, there was no plan for a sequel…until the money started rolling in. That’s when Universal and producers David Brown and Richard D. Zanuck knew they had to find a way to keep the shark working.

Jaws 2 (1978)- Director: Jeannot Szwarc, Release Date: June 16, 1978. Box-Office: $81.8 million domestic, $187.9 million worldwide.

So, how do you make a sequel to one of the most successful films of all-time when you’ve lost the first movie’s biggest star: the shark? You start by asking everyone who made the first film a hit to come back. But Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss were busy with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and author Benchley had no interest in writing a sequel. So it was up to producers Brown and Zanuck to find all the pieces for Universal to get this movie in theaters for the summer of 1978.

Roy Scheider was back reluctantly as well as most of the supporting cast. And it was up to Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler to find a way to continue the story. Composer Williams was back too, as the shark theme had become so iconic, there was no way the movie could be done without it. As with the first movie, there were production issues, including the original director being fired and director Szwarc coming on board after a month of filming. The budget of “Jaws 2” was over 3 times what the original cost and rather than capture the suspense and idea of the shark, it was shown a lot more than it was in the original. In the summer of 1978 when it came out, the tagline read: “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.” My first experience seeing “Jaws 2” was at the Sky-Hi Drive-In movie theater in Addison, IL when I was about 5 years old.

The movie is not the masterpiece that “Jaws” is and could have never expected to be, but it is an exciting adventure movie with Scheider taking solo center stage. The banter back and forth between Scheider, Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw is missed, as a group of teenagers take center focus as the shark chases them across the ocean. The opening shark attack, the shark attack with the water skier and the shark attack of the helicopter are definitely memorable but seeing the shark as much as we do in the movie, we lose some of the mystery and suspense. Williams score is exceptional again as he incorporates new themes with the famous shark theme. “Jaws 2” was a big hit again, but not on the same blockbuster level as “Jaws”. Again the movie has a definitive ending that does not set up a sequel, but because “Jaws” was now a brand name and more rip-offs were coming out including: “Piranha” (1978), “Killer Fish” (1979), “The Last Shark” (1981) and “Piranha II: The Spawning” (1981), Universal Studios was far from done with the “Jaws” franchise.

Jaws 3-D (1983)- Director: Joe Alves. Release Date: July 22, 1983. Box-Office: $42.5 million domestic, $88.0 million worldwide.

Universal Pictures now had a full-fledged franchise on their hands and were looking for a way to make the next installment fresh. They ditched the Amity Island setting, jettisoned the cast from the previous 2 movies and promised an all-new dimension of terror by filming this chapter in 3-D. Joe Alves, who was Production Designer and instrumental in the construction of the shark on “Jaws” and “Jaws 2” was hired as a first time director (Alves has not directed a movie since). The story would focus on a 35-foot Great White shark running wild in the waters and attacking visitors at Sea World in Florida. And by sure coincidence, it would also involve the 2 grown Brody boys (Mike and Sean). One line of dialogue connects the first two movies as Mike says: “remember that shark attack I told you about from when we grew up in Amity?” But the real reason for this movie’s existence is to keep the franchise alive by cashing in on the early 80’s 3-D craze. The title was in your face as it chomped together in the opening scenes.

This was followed by floating fish heads, needles, plant life, wildlife, harpoons, floating skeletons, flying glass, an exploding shark and more all in 3-D. Seeing this movie at Plitt Theaters in Stratford Square in the summer of 1983 was the best experience. Taking the carboard glasses and using a rubber band to hold them in place around your head was the ideal way to wear them. The theater was very crowded, and the audience really got into the 3-D effects screaming throughout. When I was 10 years old this movie was a lot of fun and we would even recreate some of the scenes in the pool during the summer. “Jaws 3-D” had the 2nd biggest opening weekend of the summer. But it would fail to maintain that momentum, as it finished behind “Return of the Jedi”, “Trading Places”, “WarGames”, “Mr. Mom”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and more.

Years later and with more reflection, “Jaws 3-D” is a total misfire, and quite a let down from the from the highest point of the original. The 3-D was its only redeeming quality, and without it, the effects (especially the shark) just plain stink. Alves seems to be in over his head and provides his cast and everyone else involved with poor direction. The original was an Oscar winning blockbuster and “Jaws 3-D” just seems like a super-sloppy cash grab, it should have killed the franchise, but that death blow was still to come.

Jaws: The Revenge (1987)- Director: Joseph Sargent. Release Date: July 17, 1987. Box-Office: $20.8 million domestic, $51.9 million worldwide.

After feeling like they hit an all-time low with “Jaws 3-D”, Universal felt they had to go back to the well one more time to right the ship. This involved bringing the Brody family back into focus and starting off the movie on Amity Island. Completely ignoring the events of the previous Jaws movie. There was no way Roy Scheider was going to appear, so Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen Brody in “Jaws” and “Jaws 2”, was the star. The tagline read: “This Time It’s Personal.” And the main premise was that the shark in this movie was targeting the Brody family, killing Sean in the opening scenes and then following Ellen and Mike to the Bahamas. The studio was positioning this as a thrilling throw back to the original, doubling down on the suspense, to take away some of the perceived stench left over from the previous installment. Instead what we got was a soul crushing reminder on how far this franchise had fallen since the 1975 original.

Where 1983’s “Jaws 3-D” at least kept things lively with the 3-D action and effects, this movie has nowhere to go and relies on a story so underdeveloped and incomplete we can hardly make any sense out of it. The shark is seen way too much and it looks bad, I mean comically bad, there are dreams within dreams for characters that make no sense. The shark, at one point, defies gravity and roars. We don’t know if we should be laughing or crying because it is such an embarrassment for all involved, including Universal. It was such as joke that it only lasted in theaters 4 weeks. I was one of the unlucky ones to see this in theaters during the summer of 1987 and even then, as a 14-year-old, I knew there was something wrong. How did a shark swim all the way from New England to the Bahamas? How does a 35-foot shark maneuver through the wreckage of a sunken ship? How does Ellen Brody have flashbacks to events she was not present to witness? Why did the ship explode at the end when it speared the shark?

Really Michael Caine didn’t you learn your lesson from “The Swarm” (1978)? I can only blame Universal for this mess, they let the public see this movie, in what I can only believe to be unfinished. That’s the only excuse. You can see the mechanics of the shark, you can spot the differences in water color based on where it was filmed, characters who have been in the water, now have dry clothes and depending on which ending you see, it’s either impossible to believe Mario Van Peebles is dead or he is alive. Plus they reuse footage from the ending of “Jaws” showing the dead shark’s body floating to the bottom. All this combined for, as of this writing, the end of the franchise in the summer of 1987.

Universal had all the pieces in place to make a summer franchise. But the law of diminishing returns and huge drops in quality ultimately doomed the franchise. The legacy and staying power of the original will never be damaged by the lesser sequels. Today movie sequels and franchises are planned out ahead of time and release dates, especially summer dates, are firmly planted years in advance. The “Jaws” franchise is definitely one to look back on for the do’s and don’ts of a summer franchise, still giving us a reason to talk about it more than 45 years later.

Words by Clint D. Gendusa

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