2.72 t6,000 lb
The shark in Jaws (1975) weighs about 2,722 kg, or 6,000 lb. That comes from Quint, who sizes it up at 25 ft and “three tons of him”, read as US tons. It is a character’s guess, not a measurement: Peter Benchley’s novel put its shark at about 5,000 lb, and the surviving film model weighs 1,208 lb.
| The film (1975), Quint’s estimate25 ft and “three tons”, taken as US tons; 3,000 kg if he meant metric tonnes | 2.72 t6,000 lb |
|---|---|
| The novel (1974), Hooper’s estimateAt least 20 ft and roughly 5,000 lb | 2.27 t5,000 lb |
| Fiberglass model at the Academy Museum1,208 lb, a hollow 25 ft shark cast from the film’s mould | 548 kg1,210 lb |
Nobody in the film weighs the shark. The figure comes from the moment it first surfaces beside the Orca: Hooper calls it a twenty-footer, and Quint corrects him to 25 ft and “three tons of him”. The shark is blown up at the end, so his guess is the only number the film gives.
Quint is an American fisherman, so we read his tons as US short tons of 2,000 lb. Three of them make 6,000 lb, which is 2,722 kg. If he had meant metric tonnes it would be 3,000 kg (about 6,600 lb), roughly 10% more.
In the shooting draft of the script, Hooper backs Quint up on the spot: he works the weight out from the shark’s girth with a fisherman’s formula and shouts that Quint is right, three tons.
NOAA Fisheries gives great white sharks a maximum of about 21 ft (6.4 m) and 4,500 lb (about 2,040 kg). The film’s shark is 19% longer than that, and since weight grows with the cube of length for the same body shape, a 25 ft great white would weigh about 1.19 × 1.19 × 1.19 = 1.69 times as much: around 7,600 lb (3.4 tonnes).
So Quint’s three tons is, if anything, light for the length he claims. The real exaggeration is the 25 ft, which is well beyond the biggest great whites NOAA recognises.
In Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel, it is Hooper who sizes the shark up, at at least 20 ft and roughly 5,000 lb (about 2,270 kg). That is a shorter, lighter fish than the film’s.
Benchley’s interest in sharks grew after he read about Frank Mundus, a Montauk fisherman who caught a great white weighing 4,550 lb (2,060 kg).
Art director Joe Alves designed the shark and Bob Mattey’s effects team built three full-size working versions, nicknamed Bruce after Steven Spielberg’s lawyer. Each had a 25 ft body, a 400 lb head and jaws almost 5 ft wide. One was towed on a sled; the other two each showed only one side and ran on an arm fixed to a platform sunk in 20 to 30 ft of water. Salt water kept wrecking them, and they were later destroyed, so no reliable weight for the working sharks survives.
The one survivor is a fourth shark cast in fiberglass from the original mould for display at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1975. It later spent years in Nathan Adlen’s junkyard in Sun Valley, California, was restored by Greg Nicotero and now hangs in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Being hollow, it weighs only 1,208 lb (548 kg).
About 6,000 lb. Quint estimates it at three tons, and three US tons of 2,000 lb each make 6,000 lb.
Quint puts it at 25 ft (7.6 m), after Hooper guesses 20 ft. The mechanical sharks were also built 25 ft long.
Yes. NOAA Fisheries gives great whites a maximum of about 21 ft and 4,500 lb, so the film’s 25 ft, three-ton shark is longer and heavier than any it recognises.
No reliable weight for the three working sharks was published; their heads alone weighed about 400 lb. The surviving fiberglass model at the Academy Museum weighs 1,208 lb.
The working sharks rotted and were destroyed. The only surviving full-size shark from the original mould hangs in the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Last checked October 2, 2026.
