The long shadow of Jaws 🦈

Nishanth Bhargava on the state of the summer blockbuster.

When Steven Spielberg’s Jaws hit theaters in 1975, it became a cultural phenomenon and the highest-grossing movie ever at that time, earning about $470 million worldwide during its initial release (around $1.5 billion today with inflation). It went on to win three Academy Awards and was nominated for Best Picture.

Jaws helped usher out New Hollywood, which lasted roughly from the late 60s through the early 80s: “The film, therefore, practically singlehandedly established summer as the best season for the release of projects with the biggest box-office potential, bringing with it a second crucial change within the industry: auteur films were suddenly in a less desirable position when compared to big-budget movies,” writes Sven Mikulec.

Spielberg went on to repeat his summer box office success several times over the next two decades, culminating in Jurassic Park (1993), which remains his highest-grossing film when adjusted for inflation and one of the most financially successful movies of all time.

Much like its dinosaurs, the Jurassic Park franchise has evaded extinction. The original film was followed by video games, countless comic books, and, most recently, a revival series in Jurassic World. Surprisingly, the new films seemed to have all the same bite as the original, each crossing the billion-dollar mark at the box office. That is, until this year, when the seventh installment, Jurassic World: Rebirth, fell short of that target by over $150 million. 

“The only thing required of these movies is that they provide a steady stream of dinosaur attacks on humans. When an attack isn’t happening, there’s a brief plot setup for the next attack. That’s the deal,” wrote Eileen Jones in Jacobin.

But Rebirth’s $800+ million worldwide gross still makes it the fourth biggest film of 2025, an indication that Jurassic World’s slippage is more than just franchise fatigue. After the rallying summer of Barbenheimer, theatrical box office numbers are once again on the decline, even during the historically profitable summer months. 

Last month, Puck’s Scott Mendelson probed this year’s underwhelming grosses with a provocative headline: Is $800 Million the new $1 Billion? To put it another way: has the once-dominant summer blockbuster finally lost its teeth?

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