Jaws did what no movie could do today it made the entire world terrified to swim

Shark! Shark!“Jaws,” which hit theaters 50 years ago next Friday, is known for making many splashes.It was the first hit for a 27-year-old Steven Spielberg, the man who’d go on to become one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest directors. And the innovative 1975 horror film is considered one of the earliest blockbusters.An estimated one third of Americans went to see it.

Those are Super Bowl numbers. There’s composer John Williams’ “duh-dun” score that everyone can hum, and the classic ad-libbed line “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” that everyone can recite.But my favorite feat of “Jaws” is that the monster movie had such a powerful bite when it was released that it made the masses terrified to so much as dip a toe in salty water for months.Years! No major films come anywhere close to that kind of impact today. Sure, “Barbie” got groups of friends to get dolled up in pink frocks, and “Minecraft” pushed a few idiots to trash theaters for kicks on TikTok.

But “Jaws” actually changed how people lived their lives.During the summer of 1975, The Post wrote a lot of stories about the “shark scare” along the southern coast of Long Island, from East Quogue to Fire Island, that was “touched off by the movie version of Peter Benchley’s ‘Jaws’.”“Jaws” was set in the fictional Long Island town of Amity.Suddenly, the real place was Sharksville, USA.This one’s a real doozy.

In August of that year, we reported that two police officers on a boat off Jones Beach encountered a 10-to-14-foot-long shark and started to open fire into the ocean — 15 rounds! — killing the fish.Imagine watching that unfold from your folding chair. “Everybody clapped.But when we left they were still standing on the shoreline,” one cop said of the Jaws-struck crowd.“You know,” the wannabe Roy Scheider added, “if it weren’t for the movie, this wouldn’t be such a big deal.”But, boy, was it.

Scientists believe “Jaws” caused an...