10 Movies That Caused A Public Backlash

Based on Peter Benchley's novel, the Steven Spielberg-directed Jaws is oftentimes credited with the creation of the idea of a "Summer Blockbuster". It terrified audiences the world over and while working within a budget of $9 million, it managed to generate over $470 million in box office revenue.

While the sequels may leave a lot to be desired and the storyline on screen may not match the novel to a great degree, there was a secondary and arguably bigger issue at play here that no one could have anticipated at the time.

This movie in particular is accused of misrepresenting the behaviour of great white sharks to such an extent that it caused a public panic about all different sorts of sharks and has been blamed (to a degree) for the current situation where 90% of all shark species are considered at risk.

Dubbed the "Jaws Effect", it saw the public perception move to align with the film's portrayal of sharks as dangerous animals that hunted people for sport and saw a huge increase in the number of people attempting to catch them.

Benchley has been quoted as saying that if he could have foreseen the fallout, he would never have written the book.