People don’t have to be movie fans to know that Hollywood has an addiction to sequels. It’s not complicated. If a movie is a big success and makes money then executives are going to want to return to that well and try to replicate that success. But for most franchises, there is a law of diminishing returns. It’s difficult to keep an idea fresh while also having character growth without retreading old concepts. Generally, each new installment will be less and less successful until the franchise ultimately dies. And there’s perhaps no better example of this than Jaws.
In the 1970s, Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws was a landmark event. It’s considered a culturally relevant film that gave birth to the concept of the summer blockbuster. It was a huge commercial and financial success, in large part because of Spielberg’s direction. It almost seemed like a no-brainer that the studio would want to revisit the concepts and create a sequel. The second movie is a direct continuation of the storyline. It featured the same actors going through roughly the same story beats. Although it wasn’t as well received as the first film, partly due to Spielberg’s lack of involvement, it was still a financial success and didn’t give an indication that the series was in trouble.
The two sequels that followed show a clear trend of decline. The third film tried to cash in on the revitalization of the 3D craze in the early ’80s. It also attempted to continue the storyline by having the young children from the first two movies all grown up and involved in tackling a shark at a Sea World park. But the effects were lacking and the story was muddled. This didn’t stop the studio from fast tracking a fourth film to try and increase profits. The result is a film that’s often heralded as one of the worst studio movies ever made. It completely ignored the third film and set the characters on a completely different narrative involving a shark out for revenge. It did make money, but it was clear that the Jaws franchise had run its course. By its very nature, Jaws is a difficult franchise to try and stretch out. The characters are secondary to the shark, which is more or less a mindless animal that doesn’t have its own story arc. Nevertheless, the studio continued to milk the series until there was really nothing left. It’s a clear case of how most film franchises simply can’t last forever.
Jaws is now streaming on Netflix.
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