Mondo Knows Facts
Jaws was the first film to earn $100 million in the US
The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce, kept breaking down
Steven Spielberg's Jaws, released in June 1975, became the first film to earn more than $100 million at the US box office and is often credited with creating the summer blockbuster. The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer, malfunctioned in salt water so often that the shark appears little on screen.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
Bohemian Rhapsody ran almost six minutes but became a hitThe label feared it was too long for radioThe Cannes Film Festival began in 1946A planned 1939 edition was cancelled when the Second World War beganThe M*A*S*H finale was watched by about 106 million peopleIt held the US record for most-watched broadcast for 27 yearsSesame Street began in 1969 as an educational experimentJim Henson's Muppets joined the cast from the startSteamboat Willie entered the public domain in 2024The 1928 cartoon was Mickey Mouse's first releaseNetflix began by mailing DVDsReed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded it in 1997
Tags: spielberg, blockbuster, 1975
Jaws was the first film to earn $100 million in the US: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The mechanical shark, nicknamed Bruce, kept breaking down. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a movies & tv fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.