usher. Paul Whitehouse plays the stage manager. Eileen Essell, 82 years old at the time, makes one of her first feature film appearances, as Mrs. Snow, an elderly friend and fan of Barrie's. Like Highmore, she also followed Depp to a role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Jimmy Gardner plays her husband. Production Finding Neverland was originally scheduled to be released in the autumn of 2003. Universal Pictures, which owned the film rights to Barrie's original play and was adapting it for cinema release the same year, refused to allow Miramax to use scenes from the play in Finding Neverland if it were released during the same year. Miramax agreed to delay the release in exchange for the rights to reproduce scenes from the stage production within the film. Finding Neverland opened in 2004, 100 years after Barrie's play opened. Richmond Theatre in Richmond upon Thames doubled as the Duke of York's Theatre – the venue in which Peter Pan was first presented. Exterior scenes were filmed in Hyde Park, Brompton Cemetery and Kensington Gardens. According to commentary on the DVD release, the structure used as Barrie's summer cottage was located near Kent. Interiors were filmed in the Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire and the Shepperton Studios in Surrey. Filming happened in various places in the UK. Production shot a short fantasy sequence at the Laredo Wild West Town in Kent. The town features in multiple fantasy playing sessions set in the Wild West, when Barrie (Johnny Depp) plays with the Llewellyn Davies boys. Soundtrack Release The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the Telluride Film Festival, the Haifa Film Festival, the Athens Panorama European Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival before opening in the UK on 29 October 2004. It had a limited release in the United States on November 12, 2004, and opened more widely on November 24, 2004. Reception Box office The film was budgeted at $25 million. It grossed $51,676,606 in the US and $63 million in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $115,036,108. Critical reception On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 208 reviews, with an average rating of 7.47/10. The website's critical consensus states, "It won't pass muster for those looking for historical accuracy,