When Jaws first hit theaters in the summer of 1975, the term “blockbuster” had already been floating around for a couple of decades. Originally used to describe the massive impact of some bombs during World War II, it went on to become a common descriptor for anything surprising or shockingly impactful, eventually including some big-budget movies with promising financial prospects. But it wasn’t until Jaws that the blockbuster became synonymous with the entertainment industry, and after Steven Spielberg’s genre-inventing epic became the first film to hit the $100 million mark at the box office, the concept of the summer blockbuster officially entered the American lexicon.
