Jaws: The Shark That Sank and Still Made $5 Billion for a Franchise!

Let's rewind to 1971. Peter Benchley, broke and scrambling for freelance work, pitches what he thinks is his last shot as a writer: a novel about a shark terrorizing a beach town. The Title? Well, it wasn't Jaws, not at first. Benchley and his editor tossed around more than 125 names, including Leviathan Rising and The Jaws of Death. They landed on Jaws 20 minutes before the book went to print.

Fast-forward to 1973. Universal Pictures reads the galley proof and buys the movie rights for $175,000 before the book is even published. Spielberg signs on. He casts Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw — and introduces us to "Bruce," the now-famous mechanical shark named after his lawyer.

But Bruce? Total nightmare. It barely worked. It sank. It caused endless delays. So what does Spielberg do? He goes full Hollywood, builds a miniature shark cage, and hires a Midget for 10K to dive in full scuba gear and then fly to Australia. The plan was to place the mini cage in the water and hope a Great White would swim by, making it appear larger on screen. However, it was a good idea that went awry when a Great White destroyed the cage before the Midget even got into it.

Filming in Martha's Vineyard in 1974 was chaos. The ocean didn't play nice, the budget ballooned, and Bruce kept breaking. But somehow, they managed to make it through.

Jaws hit theaters on June 20, 1975 — and changed everything.
Early reviews raved. Audiences packed theaters. It became the first film in history to crack $100 million at the U.S. box office — beating out The Godfather and inventing the term "summer blockbuster."

Today, JAWS is more than just a movie. It's a franchise. The four films have grossed around $800 million globally. Add in licensing, merchandise, theme parks, and home media — and when you adjust for inflation, this shark saga has earned over $5 billion.
Not bad for a story that started with one desperate writer and a mechanical shark that couldn't swim.

Watch now and find out how the biggest shark in film history nearly tanked and then took over the world.

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