Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ With This Sprawling Exhibition at the Academy Museum

Visitors will learn about the making of the beloved summer blockbuster through more than 200 props, costumes, recreated sets and annotated script pages

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

September 22, 2025

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Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws premiered in theatres, launching both the young director’s career and a new era in filmmaking. But the beloved blockbuster’s creation was a difficult endeavor, drawn out by unreliable mechanical sharks and temperamental tides.

“Jaws: The Exhibition,” which opened this month at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, plunges visitors into the making of the movie through props, recreated sets and behind-the-scenes stories. One item on view is the buoy that floats in the Atlantic during the movie’s opening scene, when a shark drags a swimmer into the depths.

At a press conference ahead of the exhibition’s opening, Spielberg marveled at such props’ preservation. “Why would anybody … know to take the buoy home and sit on it for 50 years, and then loan it to the Academy?” he said, per Variety’s Andrew McGowan. “How did they know? I didn’t know. I thought my career was virtually over halfway through production on Jaws because everybody was saying to me, ‘You are never going to get hired again.’”

The filming of Jaws, which took place on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, was supposed to take 55 days, according to NPR’s Cory Turner. It ended up taking 159.

“I would have the crew come up to me and say, ‘Look, I have a wife, and I’m supporting my mom, and I’ve got kids in school. When are we going to get to go home?’” Spielberg tells NPR. “And it was the toughest thing on me, having to answer that question honestly by saying, ‘I don’t know. I can’t tell you.’”

Jaws tells the story of three men—Brody, Quint and Hooper—who decide to hunt and kill a massive, bloodthirsty great white shark that’s been preying on the inhabitants of Amity Island. Three fiberglass shark models, nicknamed “Bruce,” after Spielberg’s lawyer, were created for the film. The mechanical sharks could move, but they frequently malfunctioned.

“After 50 years, many of the accounts about the production of Jaws are as well-known as the film itself,” says exhibition curator Jenny He in a statement from the Academy Museum. “This exhibition uncovers the film’s multilayered mythologies and lore for both new and seasoned fans.”

The original shark models were eventually discarded, but a fourth Bruce was later created from the same mold, and the Academy Museum has displayed it since its opening in 2021. The model measures 25 feet long and weighs more than 1,200 pounds.

“Jaws: The Exhibition” includes more than 200 objects from the making of the film, according to a statement from the Academy Museum. Visitors can view illustrations by production designer Joe Alves, costumes, engineering schematics, a broken shark cage and script pages annotated by Spielberg. The show also features a replica of the deck of the Orca, the doomed fishing vessel that prompts Brody’s famous remark, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Spielberg was just 26 when he directed Jaws. Production was such a stressful experience that he had “serious PTSD for years,” the director tells NPR. All these years later, he calls walking through the immersive exhibition “total therapy.”

“This was the ultimate example that when you work as a team, you can actually get the ball across the finish line,” Spielberg said at the press conference. “I’m very proud of the movie. The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career.”

“Jaws: The Exhibition” is on view at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles through July 26, 2026.

Sonja Anderson | Read More

Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in Chicago.