Jaws Box Office

I was impressed, but not surprised, to hear that the 50th anniversary re-release of Jaws was number 2 at the box office over the weekend.

Had I known about it ahead of time, I would have taken the family. My kids (twins, now 11) have never seen it, and have seen very few of “the classics.”

And, of course, Jaws was filmed in my hometown. My dad was a doctor and this actually was our emergency room where he worked a couple of shifts a week. I remember that big 1970s circle design on the wall with the sink:

But it’s also a sad indictment of how lame today’s movies are. It’s franchise fatigue, almost exactly as I (and others) predicted it.

There’s really nothing like an original to capture your imagination, make you see the world in a different way, and offer a shared cultural experience.

And going to the movies has become such a dreary and uninspiring experience. I used to love seeing a summer movie growing up. It was a whole experience: pizza, the arcade, the movie, being with my family and running into friends on Main Street—and talking about it at school on Monday.

Taking my kids to the nearby multiplex just seems to promise: empty cavernous theaters (since there’s a new showing every half hour), 40 minutes of ads and ear-splitting trailers, the boring movie itself—and $90 on my MasterCard.

Sad!