Bachelor Party as inspiration. Principal photography on the film, now titled Great Falls, begun on July 21 and wrapped on September 11, 1998. The film originally received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America until edits were made to secure an R rating. During the casting of the film, Bill Murray was considered for the role of Noah Levenstein, Jim's dad. Jonathan Taylor Thomas was considered for the role of Jim Levenstein. When Eugene Levy was cast, he insisted on being allowed to improvise his lines, as he disliked how his character was written in the script. In the final film, most of his lines were improvised. The film was actually shot in Southern California, most notably in Long Beach using Long Beach Unified School District area high schools. Millikan High School, whose school colors are blue and gold, was used for exterior shots, and Long Beach Polytechnic High School was used for interior shots. Located in Los Cerritos, Long Beach, California, both schools are within five miles of the Virginia Country Club and Los Cerritos Neighborhood (where Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Donnie Darko were filmed). Reception Box office Despite insiders claiming it to be a potential sleeper hit, Universal Pictures sold off the foreign rights in an attempt to recoup its budget. American Pie was sold successfully to foreign distributors at the Cannes International Film Festival. It earned $18.7 million during its opening weekend and defeated Wild Wild West to reach the number one spot. The film grossed $235,483,004 worldwide, $132,922,000 of which was from international tickets. In the United States and Canada, it grossed $102,561,004 and was the twentieth highest-grossing film of 1999. In Germany, distributed by Constantin Films, it was the most successful theatrical release of 2000 with a gross of $33.5 million. In home video rentals, the film has grossed $109,577,352 worldwide, with $56,408,552 of that coming from sales in the US. Critical response On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, American Pie has an approval rating of 61% based on 129 reviews, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The critical consensus reads, "So embarrassing it's believable, American Pie succeeds in bringing back the teen movie genre." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 58 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of A− on a scale of