Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws' is a Blockbuster (June 20)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The movie Jaws is often credited as America’s first blockbuster movie. Ever since then, movie studios are constantly on the lookout for the next big screen, tentpole film.

1975: ‘Jaws’ is Released in Theaters

Graphic of the shark from "Jaws" — “Jaws” (Universal)

Universal Pictures’ producers of the film Jaws hired 27-year-old Steven Spielberg to direct the film before the release of his first theatrical debut of The Sugarland Express.

Based on the novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, Jaws starred a mechanical shark which was affectionately known as “Bruce” behind the scenes. (Pixar also named the shark in Finding Nemo Bruce in its honor.) Bruce was often unreliable and had to be repaired often, so Spielberg had to be creative in order to make Jaws a frightening adventure without showing the shark until the middle of the movie. The famous “daa-daa” music was composed by John Williams and was performed by tuba player Tommy Johnson.

The budget for Jaws was set at $4 million, but shooting the film took longer than expected and the cost were driven up to $8 million. At one point, Universal threatened to shut down production of the movie, but the studio had a change of heart and instead promoted Jaws with a $700,000 marketing campaign. The movie recouped its production costs in just ten days making it one of the first summer blockbuster movies.

Jaws was nominated for Academy Awards and won three Oscars for Original Score, Film Editing and Sound. The movie made such an impact, it caused a lot of people to be afraid of going into the water. Any water.

2019: ‘Holey Moley’ Premieres

Rob Riggle and Joe Tessitore standing in front of a giant golf ball. — Comedian Rob Riggle and sports commentator Joe Tessitore. (ABC)

Holey Moley is a sports reality competition series that aired on ABC from 2019-2022. The term “sports” was loosely implied. The show was often advertised that it was created by basketball player Stephen Curry, but outside of his occasional appearances on the show, he is just one of the eight or so executive producers listed in the credits.

Wearing the famed gold Wide World of Sports jackets, Holey Moley is hosted by sports commentator Joe Tessitore and comedian Rob Riggle with Jeannie Mai as a sideline reporter. They really made this wacky show worth watching.

Holey Moley was filmed at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, California – the same place where Wipeout, another goofy gameshow, was filmed years earlier. Some of the more famous obstacles on show included larger-than-life props like giant windmills, a giant pinball machine, a rideable shark, and a mystery wall where contestant had a hard time concentrating once whatever was on the other side came out to torment them and ruin their shots. The obstacles were built by the ATS Team who have done work on other shows like American Ninja Warrior, The Titan Games and Big Brother.

1863: West Virginia Becomes the 35th U.S. State

1997: The Movie That Killed Batman

Images of Batman and villains from the poster for "Batman Forever" — *(TVDB)*

Although not a huge hit with fans, Warner Bros. was happy with director Joel Schumacher’s light and bright approach to 1995’s Batman Forever and they wanted a repeat performance for fourth film, Batman and Robin. However, the studio told him that they wanted the movie to be more toyetic. Maybe that was a mistake.

Val Kilmer declined to play the Caped Crusader one more time, so George Clooney took his place however Chris O’Donnell continued to play Robin, the “boy wonder”. Batman Forever also starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl.

When Batman and Robin opened on this day, it became the third-highest opening weekend gross of 1997, but ticket sales declined by 63% the next week. Audiences did not like this movie. Neither did the critics. It holds a score of 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. It has been considered as one of the worst comic book superhero movies ever made and was nominated for 11 Golden Raspberry awards with Silverstone winning for Worst Supporting Actress. And nobody was a fan that Batman’s and Robin’s costumes featured nipples. Needless to say, the next planned movie, Batman Unchained, was cancelled.

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has said, “We didn’t mean for it to be bad” and Schumacher has gone on to say, “A lot of it was my choice. No one is responsible for my mistakes but me.” Clooney not only apologized to fans, but also to Adam West, who starred in the 1966 TV series. He admits that he didn’t do the character justice and regrets making the movie.

For their part, however, both Schwarzenegger and Thurman said that they enjoyed making the film.