Jaws 2 | 1978 | Advance | UK Quad » The Poster Collector

Jaws 2 | 1978 | Advance | UK Quad

| Poster Collector | 4 Min Read

Jaws 2 is a 1978 thriller film directed by Jeannot Szwarc and produced by Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown. The screenplay was written by Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler based on the characters created by Peter Benchley. Jaws 2 is the first sequel to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws released in 1975, and the second instalment in the Jaws franchise. The film sees Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton reprising their respective roles from the first film and being joined by Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, Collin Wilcox, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Susan French, Barry Coe, Donna Wilkes, and Gary Springer.

The storyline is set four years after the events of Jaws, the town of Amity suddenly experiences series of mysterious boating accidents and disappearances. Chief of Police, Martin Brody, fears that another shark is out there, but he is ignored by the townsfolk. Unfortunately, he’s right – there is another Great White in the sea.

Just like the original film, there was trouble with the production of Jaws 2. The first director for the film, John D. Hancock, proved to be unsuitable for an action film and was replaced by Jeannot Szwarc as after nearly a month of filming, Universal and MCA executives disliked the dark, subtle tone that the film was taking and wanted a more lighthearted and action oriented story. Roy Scheider, who only reprised his role to end a contractual issue with Universal, was also unhappy during production and had several heated exchanges with Szwarc.

For the film the production crew built three sharks. The first was the platform shark, also referred to as the luxurious shark. Special mechanical effects supervisor Robert Mattey and Roy Arbogast used the same body mould that had been used in the first film as the sharks from the original film had rotted behind sheds on the lower lot of Universal Studios in the years since. The only salvageable pieces were the chromoly tube frames. The desing of the sharks used in Jaws 2 much more complicated and ambitious than the first ones. A brand new head was made by sculptor Chris Mueller making use of an all-new mouth mechanism, one which incorporated jowls to disguise the pinching of the cheeks that had proven to be a problem with the shark in the original film.

When Jaws 2 was released it received mixed reviews from the critics, though it is widely regarded as the best of the Jaws sequels. On Rotten Tomatoes it currently holds a rating of 60% with the general consensus being, “Jaws 2 never approaches the lingering thrills of its classic predecessor, but it’s reasonably entertaining for a sequel that has no reason to exist”. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, “Some of the action sequences have been well staged, but they’ve been dropped into the film so indiscriminately that Jaws 2 never builds to a particular climax. It simply drones on and on, like a television movie. Someone also made a mistake in showing us so much of the mechanical shark so early in the film”.

Commercially, like the first film, Jaws 2 was a financial success at the box office despite the mixed reviews from the critics and being the most expensive film that Universal had produced up until that point, costing the studio an esitmated $30 million which was over three times more than the original. However, in its opening weekend it took $9,866,023 at the US box office giving it the highest grossing opening weekend of all time up to that point as well as the highest single day record, despite opening on the same day as Grease which grossed $9 million the same weekend. Jaws 2 went on to record box office receipts of $102,922,376 in the US and $208,900,376 worldwide. Despite grossing less than half of the original film, it became the highest-grossing sequel in history until Rocky II was released in 1979 and The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.

Jaws 2 was followed by Jaws 3-D in 1983 and Jaws: The Revenge in 1987 both of which recieved less than favourable reviews.

Jaws 2 Advance UK Quad

Film Details

Title
Jaws 2
Year of Film
1978
Director
Jeannot Szwarc
Starring
Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey C. Kramer, Collin Wilcox, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner
Origin of Film
USA
Genre(s) of Film
Adventure | Horror | Thriller
Box Office
Budget: $20,000,000 (Estimated)
Opening Weekend: $9,866,023 (USA) (18th June 1978)
Gross: $208,900,000 (Worldwide)

Poster Details

Type of Poster
Quad
Style of Poster
Advance
Origin of Poster
UK
Year of Poster
1978
Designer
Unknown
Artist
Jack Leynnwood
Size (Inches)
40″ x 30″
Single Sided or Double Sided
Single Sided
NSS # / Printer Markings
Printed in England by W.E. Berry Ltd Bradford
Tagline
Just when you though it was safe to go back in the water…

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