‘Jaws,’ ‘Star Wars,’ or ‘Back to the Future’? Vote For Your Favorite Classic Summer Blockbuster Movie!

The best way to understand the awesomeness of the Summer Movie Blockbuster craze is to start with the 1970s, when the modern blockbuster was born. And yes, we are talking about Jaws and Star Wars (now referred to as Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope), the two movies that helped birth the trend of repeated viewings that make a blockbuster a blockbuster.

Fifty years ago, when Jaws was released in July of 1975, it became the first movie to gross $100 million in the U.S. alone and remained the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars surpassed it two years later. What the ’70s started, though, the ’80s perfected, with the continuation of the Star Wars franchise. Star Wars‘ Harrison Ford played double duty as Indiana Jones, as seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark — plus, who could forget Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future? It didn’t stop there, as Jurassic Park roared us into the ’90s and remains a highly anticipated movie franchise to this day.