16 Fun Facts about Jaws/My Movie Pick This Week

This year on my birthday I decided to eat some of my favorite meals, have some of my favorite drinks, and watch Jaws. That's a normal thing to do right? Watch a classic horror film from 1975 about man-eating sharks on your birthday?

I loved the film and can understand why it's been named one of the classics. This time, instead of discussing the plot of my movie pick of the week, I thought I'd share some fun facts. 

Whether you've seen the film or not (and you definitely should see it) here's some interesting trivia you might not have known:

1.  There were significant issues with production including being over budget by $5 million and going past schedule by 159 days.
2. The mechanical sharks suffered multiple malfunctions causing director, Steven Spielberg, to call the sharks "Great White Turds."
3. Jaws was the highest grossing film of all time until Star Wars was released two years later.
4. Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
5. The story was originally featured in the literature section of Cosmopolitan Magazine before being turned into a novel and eventually a film.
6. Movie rights were purchased before the book was published in 1973, for $175,000
7. Spielberg asked the art department to avoid using red in both costumes and scenery so that the blood from the shark attacks would be more shocking.
8. The three full-size mechanical sharks were created for the film were nicknamed "Bruce" after Spielberg's lawyer.
9. Disgruntled crew members gave the film the nickname "flaws" during production because they were overworked.
10. During most of the shark attacks, the actors were yanked by cables underwater to simulate shark attacks.
11. Spielberg was not present when the final scene was shot because he was worried the crew would pull a prank on him, and now it's a long-standing tradition that Spielberg is not present on the set when the last scenes of his movies are shot.
12. John Williams' score for Jaws won the academy award that year, and it was later ranked the sixth-greatest score of all time by the American Film Institute.
13. When John Williams originally played the score for Spielberg, he laughed and said, "That's funny, John, really; but what did you really have in mind for the theme of Jaws?"
14. The boat on which the Great White Shark is eventually hunted and killed is named The Orca, which is the only natural enemy of the white shark.
15. Over 67 million people in the U.S went to this this film when it was released making it the first summer blockbuster.
16. The shark only has 4 minutes of screen time.