10 Times They Were Worried What Movies Would Do To You
3. Jaws Would Ruin Beach Business And Stigmatise Sharks
Steven Spielberg's Jaws is one of cinema's finest ever films, with the 1975 effort even considered to be the movie which launched the concept of the summer blockbuster.
Still, that's not to say that there weren't a couple of prime worries ahead of Jaws swimming to the silver screen. On that front, conservation groups feared that the picture would stigmatise sharks, whilst a multitude of US coastal towns feared that the antics of Jaws would have a negative financial impact on their respective holiday seasons.
Unfortunately, both of those fears would be realised.
The average US beach attendance in summer 1975 was drastically down on prior years, with Jaws being cited as the major driving factor behind this. Likewise, sharks - in particular, great white sharks - were stereotyped by many as being mindless killing machines forever out for human flesh.
In reality, the common consensus is that any shark attacks on humans are accidental, with the creatures mistaking people for other animals (usually seals). Such was the depiction of sharks that the majority of audiences now had in their minds post-Jaws, Peter Benchley - the author of the novel on which the movie was based - would later say that he never would've written Jaws if he knew what sharks were really like.