wanted to keep the action unreal and over the top. When it came time to do my reaction to kissing a man, I wanted it to be the biggest, most obnoxious, homophobic reaction ever recorded. It's so ridiculous it can't be taken seriously--even though it guarantees that somebody's going to be offended". Filming took place in Miami, Florida in the second quarter of 1993. The film was produced on a budget of . Music The film score was composed by Ira Newborn. The soundtrack, produced by Morgan Creek Records, included a variety of songs by other musicians. Release Warner Bros. released Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in in the United States and Canada on February 4, 1994. The film grossed on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box office and outperforming other new releases My Father the Hero and I'll Do Anything. Opening-weekend audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on a scale of A to F. For its second weekend, it grossed and ranked first at the box office again, outperforming newcomers The Getaway, Blank Check, and My Girl 2. Variety reported of Ace Venturas second weekend in box office performance: "The goofball comedy defied dire predictions by trackers, slipping just 20% for a three-day average of $5,075 and $24.6 million in 10 days". The Los Angeles Times reported: "Audiences are responding enthusiastically to Carrey's frenzied antics... [The film] is especially a hit with the 10- to 20-year-old age group it was originally targeted for. Box-office grosses indicate that many fans are going back to see the film again". It grossed in the United States and Canada and in other territories for a worldwide total of . The film's US box office performance led Variety to label it a "sleeper hit". Its best performance overseas was in Italy. On home video, Ace Ventura sold 4.2 million home videos in its first three weeks, which Los Angeles Times called "just as powerful a draw" as its theatrical run. Carrey also starred in The Mask and Dumb and Dumber later in the year. The three films had a total box office gross of , which ranked Carrey as the second highest-grossing box office star in 1994, behind Tom Hanks. The Hollywood Reporter said before Ace Ventura, Jim Carrey was "seen mainly as TV talent" and that with the film's success, it "firmly [established] him as a big-screen presence".