|Ben Jarman|
Deep Blue Sea plays in glorious 35mm at the Trylon Cinema from Sunday, March 29th, through Tuesday, March 31st. For tickets, showtimes, and other series information, visit trylon.org.
Memories of Deep Blue Sea’s initial release still stick with me even though I never went to see it. I remember the smart shark gimmick and Samuel L. Jackson yelling, “Just what the hell did you do to those sharks!” in the trailer. I also remember questioning what anyone could do with the killer shark genre after Jaws franchise overload. Little did I know shark mania was bubbling up in the corners of cable television. Turns out, I missed ten years of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, ignoring America’s need for primal terror. It was clear the Hollywood corporate machine was on to something when the killer shark genre made a comeback.
Since we can’t breathe underwater, everything in the sea is horrifying. We don’t see very well down there, so creatures like squid, jellyfish, and whales are still mysterious. Worst are sharks with their black eyes, layered teeth, and sharp fins. Anytime a shark attacks a person in the real world, everyone listens because that doesn’t happen a lot. Granted, while sharks barely account for any human deaths in the real world, they make for pretty great antagonists in our imaginations. That is where Hollywood and cash-grabbing studios come in.
Jaws established the idea of a blockbuster and did it with a killer shark. The producers were aware of the public’s fascination with sharks and honored this obsession. In the film, Robert Shaw’s famous retelling of a shark attack during a World War 2 naval battle wasn’t fictional and the public knew about this event through newspapers. According to an article written by Janet Davis in The Conversation, “Journalists consistently described imperiled servicemen who were rescued or dying in “shark-infested waters.”” Here is the media reaching for fascinating stories of the macabre to sell papers. Nothing different from Doubleday publishing Peter Benchley’s Jaws novel in 1974 and in turn, Universal distributing the movie adaptation. These companies knew sharks would sell and money was generated with each sequel.
Just when the Jaws franchise was nearing completion, Discovery Channel needed to find a way to increase viewership. In an article for Washingtonian, Benjamin Freed writes, “Television was still the domain of the big three broadcast networks, and Discovery, on the air just two years, was trying to find its way among the other new niche cable networks like ESPN, CNN, and Nickelodeon.” Discovery came into being as a television channel providing documentaries on space, inventions, and nature, but nobody was watching. Without viewers or the holdings it has today (The Food Network, HGTV, etc.) to fall back on, Discovery would not be able to make enough revenue to continue broadcasting. Documentaries alone were not enough to keep audiences interested in the channel, so the network needed to find ways to make programing more engaging. Shark shows were a little more popular than other shows, though, and there was a successful “big-ape” marathon on another channel. With this in mind and the release of the last Jaws movie on the horizon, Shark Week was created.
How well did Shark Week work? Well, audiences showed up. It was the summer, a time in which no new content aired on the big networks and people were headed to beaches, the home of the shark. According to Freed, “A year later, Discovery was in 40.6 million homes—45 percent of all TV-owning households—and growing faster than any other cable channel.” It wasn’t long before Discovery executives realized they needed to continually outdo themselves to keep audience interest. What was once a week of scientific shark programing morphed into the fantastic. Discovery also carried the adventures of The Crocodile Hunter in which a lively Steve Irwin placed himself in danger with some of the world’s scariest animals. The network capitalized on this and gathered other personalities to stand in harm’s way specifically with sharks. When ratings started dipping again, Discovery decided to make a documentary about a Megalodon still living in our oceans. Though there was no proof of the dinosaur-sized shark living in the world today, Discovery decided to air the program as “science” to keep Shark Week a highlight for the company.
As Shark Week’s success continued, killer shark movies started appearing again. This started with Renny Harlen’s Deep Blue Sea in 1999. The film follows an ensemble cast of characters working to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by extracting brain matter from genetically enhanced sharks. This Alzheimer’s research being conducted is funded by a pharmaceutical corporation hoping to earn a profit from a miracle drug. While many of the characters in the film are exploiting sharks for personal reasons, I was surprised to notice the characters were not really influenced by the needs of the pharmaceutical manufacturer. Samuel L. Jackson’s character represents the manufacturer but actually seems concerned about the science conducted on the ship. He is concerned more with ethics than money. The fact that the movie opens with quintessential corporate scum actor, Ronny Cox, as the silent CEO of the pharmaceutical company, is a red herring. The sharks attack the crew, but they refreshingly don’t attack just because of the stereotypical evil corporation reason we see in most films. Unlike a clueless rat in a cage, the sharks attack because they are now intelligent enough to see they are being exploited by humanity in general.
The more important corporation involved with this film is Warner Bros. Warner had the foresight to see the public’s interest in sharks. Whether through Shark Week or another influence, the company built Deep Blue Sea to tap into the popularity of sharks and ended up bringing in $165,000,000 at the box office, more than double the budget according to Box Office Mojo. A variety of killer shark product followed as seen through movies like The Shallows, Open Waters, and Warner Bros’ own, The Meg. When Discovery’s competitor, the Sci-Fi Channel started releasing their Sharknado movies, all bets were off.
The irony of all this sharksploitation competition is that Warner Bros. and Discovery eventually merged in 2023. Shark Week continues to this day, and Warner Bros. still distributes killer shark films. Warner Bros. Discovery is such a media giant that Netflix and Paramount Pictures are in a bidding war to buy the company. While most audiences seem ignorant of this race, another merger like this leads to fewer media companies. Fewer media companies mean the movies, television, and music we consume will be controlled by just a few leaders with one vision. Variety will become a rarity in a time in which we need as much variety from as many creatives as possible.
At the heart of the coming mega-corporation made up of Warner Bros. Discovery and what is looking like Paramount, are many creatives that have stories to tell. If those stories cannot be told due to a few leaders in a glass tower thinking only of the money, audiences will suffer, never to see media outside of a single voice. We might not ever get to see true documentaries about sharks again that depict these beautiful creatures as just a part of the food chain that rarely kill humans. If these “monsters” can bring in money though, why not continue the terror in the eyes of companies like Warner Bros. Discovery. Then, eventually this mega corporation becomes the manifestation of a shark, eating everything in sight until there is nothing left to eat and only one thing to consume on our televisions.
Edited by Finn Odum