2. Jaws
Universal PicturesFor those unfamiliar, here is a quick synopsis of the history of Hollywood. The industry was started in Southern California by immigrants who were entrepreneurs looking to get into the entertainment industry. While they obviously wanted to make money, they also were passionate about the films themselves and had concrete ideas about what movies should be. Fast forward about half a decade, and as these patriarchs faded away, the studios were in disarray and looking to anyone for answers. In conjunction with rise of the counter culture, a group of young new directors, took the reins of the industry. This group included some of the most highly regarded directors in the history of cinema such as Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and, of course, Steven Spielberg. While the exciting direction New Hollywood was taking cinema brought the box office out of the doldrums it had occupied just a decade before, the corporate monarchs didn't take serious note of its potential earning power until the first true blockbuster emerged: Jaws. The numbers Jaws pulled in were simply too big to ignore, and from that moment on, it was the beginning of the end. Jaws is rightly considered one of the greatest movies ever made. It announced the arrival of one cinema's greatest visionaries: Steven Spielberg. It gave us the musical genius of perhaps the greatest film composer to ever live: John Williams. Also, it's just a really well made film. However, there is no denying that the film also brought people into the industry who couldn't care less about cinema as an art, and for that, we are still paying today.