"rich and supple" feel, drawing inspiration from films like The Godfather, which featured visually appealing locations with ominous undertones. Once Nicholas left his protected world, Fincher and Savides let fluorescents, neon signs, and other background lights become overexposed to let "things get a bit wilder out in the real world." For The Game, Fincher used a Technicolor printing process called ENR, which gave the night sequences a smoother look. The challenge for him was to determine how much deception the audience could handle and whether they would "go for 45 minutes of red herrings." To address this, he staged scenes as simply as possible and used a single camera because "with multiple cameras, you run the risk of boring people with coverage." The scene where Nicholas' taxi drives into the San Francisco Bay was shot near the Embarcadero. Meanwhile, the close-up of Douglas trapped in the back seat was filmed on a soundstage at Sony Pictures Studios in a large water tank. The actor was in a small compartment that was designed to resemble the backseat of a taxi, with three cameras capturing the action. Principal photography lasted 100 days, with much of the shooting done at night at various locations. Release The Game was released on September 12, 1997, in 2,403 theaters, and grossed $14.3 million during its opening weekend. It went on to make $48.3 million in North America and $61.1 million in the rest of the world, for a worldwide total of $109.4 million. Criterion Collection released The Game on Laserdisc in 1997, with exclusive features including an alternate ending and audio commentary from the creators. On September 18, 2012, it was reissued on DVD and Blu-ray. Universal Studios also released the movie on HD DVD format on April 17, 2007. Reception Critical response Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 77% based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "The ending could use a little work but this is otherwise another sterling example of David Fincher's iron grip on atmosphere and storytelling." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of