Martha's Vineyard celebrates the 50th anniversary of "Jaws"

Back in the day, it was more common for movies to be roadshowed a bit. They would release in a smaller number of theaters for a little while, and then move to some other theaters, and continuing to expand from there. This allowed for buzz to grow, and said buzz would effectively be word-of-mouth marketing. A movie would stay in theaters for much longer back then, and might even circle back to a larger city. After all, you weren't exactly renting VHS movies back then, so if you didn't see it in theaters, you had to wait for it to be on television. Larger releases were often for movies studios thought weren't very good, or for B-movie studios who were trying to grab as much money as they could as quickly as they could. This was to avoid bad word of mouth.

Universal, though, threw "Jaws" in a bunch of theaters and marketed it hard. The move paid off. When "Star Wars" did the same thing a couple years ago and supplanted "Jaws" as the highest-grossing movie, summer blockbusters were codified. Truly, the very shape of the modern film release landscape stems from "Jaws" and how it was released 50 years ago. 2025's summer blockbuster releases getting the same weekend 50 years later are "Elio" and "28 Years Later," if you were curious. Not exactly "Jaws" on either front, but it's been a good summer for the big studios up to this point.

Naturally, the 50th anniversary of one of the most-beloved, most-important American movies ever made has generated plenty of retrospection and content. Hey, you're reading this right now for a reason. Variety did a deep dive into the film's production and legacy, but this is a film that has been dissected over and over like that shark Hooper carved open. There has been some fun stuff, though. A local San Diego station threw up a vintage video of moviegoers talking about "Jaws." 

Also, "Today" had one of its correspondents go to Martha's Vineyard, which served as Amity for "Jaws," to tour some of the locations and talk to locals who ended up acting in the movie. 

A local Boston station did the same thing. Have we mentioned that the 50th anniversary of "Jaws" is a big deal?

Very successful movies have been, and will be, released this summer. They are following in the footsteps of "Jaws." However, none of them will be as seismic, and as indelible, as the story about a shark freaking out an island town and the dudes who take it upon themselves to bring peace to Amity.