Half a century ago, in June 1975, “Tubarão” hit theaters, gave a good scare in the public and rewritten the history of cinema.
The shark thriller has become the first summer box office hit in the northern hemisphere with a booklet that Hollywood studios continue to this day.
“Tubarão” was strongly marketed, creating a buzz that positioned the film as an unmissable event. It became a smash hit that changed the career of his young director, Steven Spielberg, then 26 and changed the programming of the movies.
“Before ‘Tubarão’, there wasn’t really a well -defined summer movies season,” said Paul Dregarabedian, a senior analyst of comScore movies.
“Great films could be released at any time of the year, but there was never a season that encompassed what the young people wanted to do in the summer, which was going to the movies,” he added. “It really changed everything.”
“Star Wars” followed the same way in the summer of 1977, reaching the US Memorial Day weekend in the US. Spielberg debuted his first “Indiana Jones” films in June 1981.
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Hollywood currently has many of his most ambitious movies in theaters from the first weekend of May until the day of labor in September.
This season is responsible for about 40% of the annual return of the ticket office in the United States and Canada. By 2024, national theaters generated $ 3.7 billion in ticket sales during this period.
“Summer is what we expect most in the film industry,” said Doreen Sayegh, a Cranford Theater owner and five -room operator in New Jersey.
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“That’s when some of the most popular films are released, the biggest box office hits, and the kids are at home after school, so we see many families.”
Hollywood is counting on this summer to reverse a fall trend. Ticket sales in the United States and Canada are 11% delayed over the same period last year, according to ComScore data, and remain below pre-parish levels. Theaters face competition from home streaming services such as Netflix.
Hollywood eagerly awaits summer, 50 years after the success of “Shark”
Great bets
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This week, movie studios presented their biggest summer bets at CinemaCon, an annual meeting of theaters in Las Vegas. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer reminded the audience that “Top Gun: Maverick” yielded $ 1.5 billion worldwide in 2022.
“We are here to tell you that we are ready to do this again,” said Bruckheimer, with Warner Bros’s “F1” action movie starring Brad Pitt as Formula 1 pilot. “We believe this will be the summer film event.”
Scheduled for June, “F1” is among the few original big budget films on a list of sequences, restarts and franchises.
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Walt Disney Marvel Studios featured “Thunderbolts,” the story of an irreverent team of superheroes starring Florence Pugh, David Harbor and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. “Thunderbolts” will start the summer movie season in May, and Marvel will take a sequel to “Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July.
Warner Bros. released its new “Superman”, directed by the filmmaker of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, James Gunn. Actor David Corenswet will wear the famous red cover for the first time, part of the studio’s latest attempt to invigorate DC Comics movies.
Comcast Universal Pictures promoted a new movie about Dinosaurs, “Jurassic World: Request”, starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey.
One of the greatest film champions, Tom Cruise, made a provocation on “Mission: Impossible – The Final Set,” a film that may be his last in the action franchise.
While people evaluate their summer entertainment options, US Republican President Donald Trump’s fares have caused fears of global economic slowdown. Any economic uncertainty resulting from federal policies can create a challenge for the film sector, said Michael O’Leary, president and CEO of the Cinema United commercial organization.
“We are a sector that thrives with the discretionary income of people,” said O’Leary. “When there is uncertainty in economic markets, for any reason, people tend not to use this discretionary income as much as they would use.”
When Hollywood starts compiling this summer’s recipes, a well -known star will return to the big screen. Universal plans to relaunch “Tubarão” in theaters in late August to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
