Home Video Report: Attack of the Movie Marketers
By Bob Nelson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Thirty-seven summers ago, in 1975, Universal Pictures changed the nature of American moviegoing by introducing Steven Spielberg's maritime thriller Jaws to terrified audiences with a radio and television promotional blitz never before seen.
Its initial release attracted audiences to area theatres within easy driving. For its opening, Jaws opened on more than 460 screens across the country at one time -- a departure from traditional rollouts that began with a handful of big-cities and transitioned slowly to smaller cities and towns.
Now, we have the arrival of the Blu-ray format, offering a clarity and crispness that may have you thinking you are watching the film for the first time.
Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Roy Scheider lead the cast of this groundbreaking original. The Blu-ray disk includes TV commercials from that marketing watershed event.
