Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, Jaws is Steven Spielberg's first summer blockbuster, about a New England resort town terrorized by a killer shark.

Jaws is notable for several distribution and marketing strategies that partially revolutionized the motion picture industry. Universal Pictures studio chief Sid Sheinberg devised the concept of "wide release" of motion pictures into several hundred theaters on the same day. Throughout the early days of cinema through the 1970s, films had been released in only a few theaters at a time and then spread out over the coming weeks.

Spielberg was not nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards, however the film won awards for editing, original score and sound.

• "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
• "Here's to swimming with bow-legged women."
• "Smile, you son of a b---."