ABSTRACT

I The term is often used loosely, but Jaws is a true superseller of the 1970s. In just six months as a Bantam paperback it sold over 6 m. copies, and within a couple of years had come up to the maximal 10 m. mark. In Britain, Pan’s paperback sold a million in its first year and almost twice as many in its second, boosted by the film. The film itself, whose costs reportedly escalated during production from $4 m. to $8½ m. (largely due to shooting problems at sea) eventually rewarded the budget overrun with gross returns of $400 m. in box-office and $200 m. in film rental receipts by mid 1978 (Loynd, 1978, p. 16). ‘Jaws mania’ received America’s highest popular acknowledgment: front cover commemoration on the Time-style magazines. For one week (and this during the Vietnam war’s critical aftermath) a film centred on ‘Bruce’, the plastic shark, was certified as the single most important news-story in the world.