Jaws sparked Bruce Springsteen’s 50-year grudge against Steven Spielberg
Bruce Springsteen reveals what kicked off his decades-long grudge against Steven Spielberg—and the reason is funnier than you’d think.
At the Museum of Modern Art’s annual Film Benefit in New York on Thursday night, Bruce Springsteen used his time at the mic to roast his longtime friend Steven Spielberg over the shark that changed summers on the Jersey Shore. Zeroing in on 1975’s Jaws , Springsteen said the movie permanently spooked beachgoers out of late-night dips.
“One of the great pleasures on the Jersey Shore in 1975 was night swimming, preferably n**** with someone you wanted to have s** with,” Springsteen told the Museum of Modern Art crowd.
He then added, “He f***** it up good. Over the years, I asked myself, ‘Why would a nice man like that, why would he do that?’”
The ribbing came with decades of friendship behind it — the two have known each other for around 30 years — and with some specific, fairly hilarious evidence. According to Variety, Springsteen joked that after a few outings on Spielberg’s own boat — a far cushier cousin to the Jaws vessel and reportedly equipped with its own pool — the director still wouldn’t swim, not in the ocean and not even in the pool. Springsteen quipped he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Spielberg in a bathing suit.
The jab landed because the timing still stings a little for anyone who grew up going “down the Shore” in the ’70s: Jaws didn’t just invent the summer blockbuster; it made a lot of night swimmers think twice before wading in after dark.
Box office king
Jokes aside, the scoreboard favors Spielberg. According to Variety, he remains the highest-grossing director ever with more than $11 billion in worldwide box office as of November 2026, a lead built over nearly five decades. James Cameron sits second at $10.591 billion, and Christopher Nolan ranks third with $8.048 billion, boosted by The Odyssey. Along the way, Spielberg’s topped the all-time global chart three separate times:
- Jaws — nearly $495 million worldwide (then the biggest ever)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial — $797.3 million
- Jurassic Park — crossed $1 billion worldwide
Variety also notes that Spielberg’s summer release Disclosure Day earned a modest $248 million worldwide. The cumulative totals above are not adjusted for inflation.