<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $3.2 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $19.3 million </Td> </Tr> <P> A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Metrocolor Christmas comedy film directed by Bob Clark, and based on Jean Shepherd's semi-fictional anecdotes in his 1966 book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, with some elements from his 1971 book Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories . Now a Christmas season classic in the United States, it is shown numerous times on television, usually on the networks owned by the Turner Broadcasting System . Since 1997, a marathon of the film titled "24 Hours of A Christmas Story" has aired annually on TNT and / or TBS, comprising twelve consecutive airings of the film on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day each year . </P> <P> The film earned director Clark two Genie Awards . In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". </P>

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