How Steven Spielberg's JAWS Survived a Nightmare Shoot to Redefine Hollywood Forever
Jaws is a legend, not just the film, but the way it was made. It’s hard to imagine that a movie this iconic was once on the verge of collapse. But in the summer of 1974, a 27-year-old Steven Spielberg found himself in the middle of the Atlantic, shooting a shark movie that seemed like it would never be finished.
“We didn’t know how they were ever going to finish this movie,” recalled actor Jeffrey Kramer. “There were rumors all around the set that the studio was going to shut us down.”
And who could blame them? Three mechanical sharks, all of which barely worked. Unpredictable weather. Seasick cast and crew. Over 100 days behind schedule.
The $4 million budget ballooned to $8 million. For Spielberg, the pressure was intense. “His nails were bitten to the stubs,” said co-writer Carl Gottlieb. “But that was the only manifestation of his nerves. Steven knew he needed to lead by example. That meant concentrating on his job and keeping his cool even when everything around him was going to hell.”
Everything did go to hell. Spielberg wanted to film on the real ocean off Martha’s Vineyard to make it authentic, but it made continuity a nightmare. Boats drifted into frame. The shark sank. And the cast, especially Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, clashed hard. “Jaws should never have been made,” Spielberg later admitted. “It was an impossible effort.”
And yet… it was finished. And not only that.. it was a game-changer.
When it hit theaters on June 20, 1975, Jaws terrified audiences and raked in $260.7 million in its initial release, becoming the highest-grossing movie ever at the time. Test audiences screamed so loud popcorn went flying. “As soon as the studio saw that reaction, they went, ‘Jesus, this is going to be a big movie,’” said production designer Joe Alves.
That’s when everything changed. Universal shelled out a then-massive $1.8 million for marketing and dumped the film into 400+ theaters nationwide, which was something unheard of at the time.
The studio leaned on the success of Peter Benchley’s novel and embraced the movie’s shark logo like a brand. “By the time we sneaked the film in Dallas, we didn’t even need to name it in the ad,” said producer David Brown. “We put in the logo of the shark’s teeth and the swimming girl and 3,000 came out in a hailstorm.”
The ripple effect was massive. Jaws didn’t just create the summer blockbuster, it created the blueprint. Big spectacle, wide release, aggressive marketing, merchandise. Star Wars, Jurassic Park, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, they all exist because Jaws proved you could turn a movie into a cultural phenomenon.
But the brilliance of Jaws wasn’t just the marketing. Spielberg made the most of the film’s limitations. When the mechanical shark broke down, he leaned into suspense, letting music, POV shots, and editing build dread.
Verna Fields’ editing, John Williams’ now-legendary score, and Spielberg’s decision to not show the shark as often made the movie scarier.
“I played boom boom boom on the piano for him,” Williams said. “And Steven said, ‘Are you serious?’… Then he said, ‘Oh, this is wonderful.’”
The emotional core is what truly anchors the movie. Spielberg cut subplots and honed the story down to three men against the sea. That clarity paid off. Moments like Brody’s son mimicking him at the dinner table or Quint’s chilling Indianapolis monologue make the terror feel human.
Gottlieb remembered when Shaw finally cracked the speech: “He came to dinner one night, slammed his hand on the table and said, ‘I’ve got that pesky speech licked.’ He read it to us. It was so stunning that when he finished, Steven said, ‘That’s it. We’re shooting that.’”
That four-minute monologue is a masterclass in character work, and it’s one of the reasons Jaws still hits 50 years later. It’s not just the fear of sharks, it’s the fear of losing people, the fragility of control, the reality of death in the deep.
Even filmmakers born decades later still look to it. “So much of the language of cinema comes from this film,” said Eli Roth. “Spielberg created all of it.” Jason Blum agreed: “Even young filmmakers say, ‘It’s going to be like the shark in Jaws.’ That’s incredible for a film that’s 50 years old.”
Spielberg, of course, went on to break more box office records with E.T. and Jurassic Park, and earned acclaim for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan. But Jaws was the movie that made him… and scarred him.
“You’ve probably noticed I haven’t done very many water pictures since Jaws,” he told his biographer.
Who could blame him? When you survive a nightmare and change cinema in the process, you’ve earned the right to stay on dry land.
Via: Variety