The 11 Best Shark Movies Every Made, Ranked

Roll your eyes (like a doll’s eyes!) if you must, but Syfy’s spoof franchise has resulted in more movies than any other shark franchise, with six Sharknado titles and three spin-offs. The 2013 original deserves credit for launching this mess, but it’s rather dull viewing today, with effects so dreadful that it’s nearly incoherent. Fans debate which of its sequels are best. But the New York-set and celebrity cameo-stuffed The Second One (which opens with sharks on a plane) along with the third entry (2015’s utterly bonkers, time-traveling Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!) are considered standouts.

The most recent film on this list has plenty of haters, and that’s probably because it plays a bit of a trick on the audience. Under Paris is a French export about a marine researcher (Bérénice Bejo) trying to stop mutant sharks from attacking an upcoming upcoming triathlon in the River Seine. Directed by Xavier Gens, the film opens as a fairly sober drama and then evolves into an over-the-top comedy — a gradual tonal gear change that’s rather fun if you’re down for the ride. A sequence where a group of radical environmental activists get attacked in the city’s catacombs is the first big hint that you’re not watching the movie you thought you were and is alone worth the price of admission.

The first of two Aussie imports on this list. Bait assembles a young cast in a beachside grocery store that’s catastrophically flooded by a freak tsunami and find themselves menaced by two great white sharks. This is the type of movie where a frat bro tosses his girlfriend’s pomeranian at a shark to save himself (and, yes, somebody is eventually used as the titular bait — and it’s not the unfortunate guy in the above photo). If you liked The Mist, but thought the grocery store should be half flooded and full of sharks, this is the movie for you.

A capsized yacht. Land is 11 miles away. Sharks in between. That’s the gripping idea behind the other Aussie import on this list, director Andrew Traucki’s The Reef. Like Open Water, the film is based on a true story and makes effective use of real shark footage, which gives The Reef a compelling “this actually happened” level of dread. Many “best shark movies” lists rank The Reef higher, but there are some elements that bog it down — thin characters and clunky script, along with inaccurate closing title cards which leave a bad taste. Still, The Reef is considered essential for those who like this genre.

There is something about shark movies that lend themselves to camp, which why nearly half the movies on this list are comedies to some extent. The Meg is the undisputed king of these. A down-for-whatever Jason Statham battles a prehistoric megalodon (as he gravely intones in the trailer with a perfectly straight face: “It’s megalodon!”). While the film received mixed reviews, The Meg grossed more than half a billion at the box office, making it the most successful film on this list in gross dollars (though Jaws easily tops when adjusted for inflation). 

The second Jaws film is so outclassed by the original — yet also so dragged down by the reputation of the franchise’s far-worse sequels — that it’s easy to overlook that it’s actually a rather good killer shark movie. Roy Scheider (though not Richard Dreyfuss) returns to battle a new great white menacing Amity Island, with director Jeannot Szwarc taking over for Spielberg. If you forgive Jaws II for what it isn’t (the film is utterly devoid of the original’s charm) and embrace what the movie for what it is (a surprisingly brutal slasher film), there’s a bloody good time to be had.  

Okay, now we’re getting into the top tier of shark movies. 47 Meters Down is like: “What if the shark cage scene in Jaws was the whole movie?” Sisters (Claire Hold and Mandy Moore) on vacation sign up for a shark cage adventure only to get trapped an easily guessable number of meters below the surface and surrounded by shaaaaaarks! Director Johannes Roberts keeps up the tension (and throws in a terrific plot twist) in this economical 89-minute thriller that works despite its murky visuals and over-reliance on jump scares.

Blake Lively (back during The Before Times) stars in this riveting survival thriller with a simple premise: A surfer is trapped on a rock that’s being circled by a killer great white shark. It’s effectively a one-woman (and one shark) show with an intensely physical performance by Lively that keeps you guessing as to how our hero is going to get out of this, and is coupled with lean and effective direction by Jaume Collet-Serra. The Shallows and the next two titles all could have been the No. 2 choice on this list; they’re all strong in very different ways.

Open Water is the opposite of The Meg: A shark movie so realistic that you will never want to watch it again. Written and directed by Chris Kentis and based on a true story, Open Water follows a husband and wife scuba divers who get left behind when their tour boat goes back to shore without them. The film was made for only $500,000 and grossed $55 million. Riveting and brutal, the documentary-style production is like Blair Witch with cold mouthfuls of salt water.

It’s less stressful sequel, Open Water 2: Adrift, isn’t strong enough to earn a slot on this list, but still deserves a shout out for a truly anxiety-inducing premise: A group of young people with a yacht get stranded when jump in the water and forget to leave the boat’s ladder down. Something about having the safety of a big luxurious yacht right there, and trying in vain to scramble up the side of unforgiving fiberglass like bugs trapped in a water glass is the stuff of nightmares — and that’s before the sharks show up.

It’s silly. The sharks look fake. You can figure out the entire story in the first five minutes. But let me tell you chum, Deep Blue Sea is a really fun hang that’s like a Jaws-ified version of Jurassic Park. The premise: Genetically engineered super-smart sharks go on a killing spree after escaping the confines of a research laboratory (which is located in the middle of the ocean — something that even a regular shark could tell you is a dumb idea). The terrific ensemble cast (Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport and Stellan Skarsgård) is a hoot. Director Renny Harlin keeps the action moving and suspenseful. And there’s one famously jaw-dropping (jaws-dropping?) shock that should not be spoiled. 

Jaws just celebrated its 50th anniversary, which means there have been five decades of filmmakers trying to make a better shark movie and still not being able to top this film which is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster. The real secret to the film’s success is that Spielberg made one of the most likable and re-watchable movies ever made. From its charming Martha’s Vineyard esthetic, to its prickly trio of leads, to its classic structure script which deftly balances drama, comedy and horror, nearly everybody adores this film. So many titles on this list have better effects, most spectacular kills and funnier jokes, but none come close to generating the collective chemistry of Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. Has any shark movie had a character that’s more colorfully iconic than the salty Quint? Has any on-screen shark expert ever been more lovable than Matt Hooper? And certainly no shark movie soundtrack will ever beat John Williams’ score. The production was famously chaotic, yet everything came together and still works.

Some numbers: Jaws was made for $9 million (blowing past its original $3.5 million budget). It became the first movie to make more than $100 million at the box office and its original U.S. theatrical run made $266 million (adjusted for inflation, that’s like $1.6 billion today). With international and re-releases added, the film has made cumulative $484 million.