‘Jaws’ Reemerges From The Deep For 50th Anniversary With Theatrical Rerelease & New Merchandise
Universal Pictures is leaving no barrel untied as they prepare for the half-century celebration of Steven Spielberg’s classic 1975 seaside suspense saga, Jaws. With a multitude of events planned for the year, it appears that the 112 year old film studio is setting out to prove that it’s still not safe to go back into the water. The first strike is the announcement that Universal is rereleasing the film into theaters. The inaugural screening will take place at the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood starting on April 24 to April 27.
This is followed by the Alamo Drafthouse igniting the summer fireworks with their own screening in May before the full theatrical release from August 29 to September 4. But it gets better: there’s a special menu, giftbag merchandise, and there’s no forgetting the trendy limited edition popcorn buckets that will undoubtedly trigger people into a feeding frenzy when it becomes available.
Along with this, the Alamo Drafthouse is hosting an event called ‘Jaws on the Water’ where brave movie buffs get to watch a screening of the film while floating in water. One of these special screenings is taking place at Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. The other is being held at the location of the film itself, Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Tickets for all of this can be found on the Alamo Drafthouse website.
It doesn’t stop there, my seafaring friends! The Academy of Motion Pictures Museum in Los Angeles announced last Tuesday that it is hosting a Jaws exhibit from September 14th to July 26th of next year that will feature props and set pieces from the film. Will this include the shredded floatation raft that once belonged to a young Alex Kintner? Nobody knows, but one can only hope that it does.
“Jaws: The Exhibition is the first-ever exhibition of this scale at the Academy Museum, focused exclusively on a single film, and the largest mounted exhibition ever for Jaws,” the Academy’s website reads. “It celebrates the film’s 50th anniversary and revisits Jaws scene by scene, through original objects, behind-the-scenes revelations, and interactive moments.”
Not only is Universal bringing history’s greatest of great white sharks back to the big screen, but also the small screen with a 50th Anniversary special edition that will be re-released this summer on both digital and DVD/Blu Ray with all-new bonus material, and every Jaws movie will be available to stream through Peacock starting June 15, for those who don’t even like the outdoors, let alone the water.
On the outside chance that somebody out there doesn’t know what Jaws is about, it’s based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, and it tells the story of a great white shark that develops a tastes for the tourists spending their Fourth of July at the fictional resort town of Amity Island (aka Martha’s Vineyard). It’s up to the local aquaphobic police chief (Roy Schieder), a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss), and a seasoned shark hunter (played brilliantly by Robert Shaw) to hunt down the massive maneater before it kills again!
Jaws was a smash hit that gave birth to the summer blockbuster, launched Steven Spielberg’s legendary directing career (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost arc, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan), the legendary composing career of John Williams, and it is the main reason (aside from being out of shape) why so many people avoid going to the beach. The film also spawned three sequels: The inferior (but still watchable) Jaws 2 (1978), the unwatchable Jaws 3 (1983), and the exquisitely bad Jaws: The Revenge (1987). For now, it is one of the few popular IPs that hasn’t been marred by remakes, or decades-later sequels, and all we can do is beg merciful Poseidon that it never comes to that.
Relive the terror again:
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