<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $1,885,000 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $6,566,000 (original release) $12,800,000 </Td> </Tr> <P> Meet Me in St. Louis is a musical film made by Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer and released in 1944 . Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis, leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (more commonly referred to as the World's Fair) in the spring of 1904 . The picture stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart, and Joan Carroll . </P> <P> The film was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson, originally published in The New Yorker magazine under the title "5135 Kensington", and later in novel form as Meet Me in St. Louis . The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met Garland on the set and later married her . It was the second - highest grossing picture of the year, only behind Going My Way.In 1994, the film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . </P>

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