Mascola's men pursue in a helicopter, shooting and destroying the boat and inadvertently killing Mascola. Shaft escapes the explosion and hides the bag, clambering over the docks in a cat-and-mouse chase with Mascola's men before destroying the helicopter and killings its occupants. Police led by Bollin arrive and demand to know the location of the money. Shaft refuses, but implies he will be donating it to a child care clinic, as Asby had always intended. Cast Production Production studio MGM, confident that the Shaft series would be a success, started development of Shaft's Big Score before the original Shaft film was even completed. MGM rejected Ernest Tidyman's first submitted outline for the film, which he turned into the novel Shaft Among the Jews. In contrast to the original Shaft, which was produced on a $500,000 budget, Shaft's Big Score cost nearly $2,000,000. Like Shaft, however, it was filmed entirely on location in New York City, with specific shooting locations including the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Cypress Hills Cemetery. MGM attempted to get Isaac Hayes, composer of the soundtrack for Shaft, to score Shaft's Big Score, but negotiations broke down when MGM refused to pay Hayes the amount he demanded. Reception Box office After two weeks in five theaters, Shaft's Big Score! expanded to an additional 99 theaters and grossed $2,175,811 by the end of its third week. It went on to earn theatrical rentals of $4 million in the United States and Canada. It had a total $10 million gross. Critical response Roger Greenspun of The New York Times observed that "the new Shaft follows a new and glossier and tidier image, an image that is much more James Bond than Bogart." His review concluded, "Gordon Parks keeps improving as a technician, and 'Shaft' Big Score' is far more ambitious and professional than the original 'Shaft.' But it is also more mechanical and more exploitative of the material. And so it becomes less responsible, less detailed, less personal, less serious and less fun." Conversely, Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, describing it as "mass-audience escapist entertainment" that works better than the original film did. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The 'Shaft' series works, and will continue to work, because John Shaft is black, beautiful (to women), and a winner." Arthur D. Murphy of Variety