<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $13 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $33.4 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 American coming - of - age drama film . An adaptation of the 1999 epistolary novel of the same name, it was written and directed by the novel's author, Stephen Chbosky . Filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the film was released on September 21, 2012, to positive critical response and commercial success, earning $33.4 million to a budget of $13 million . The film stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller . Two or three years after the release of film, Chbosky began to speak more openly concerning the mental health care aspects of the film which were of significance to him in the original writing of the book and the production of the film as he conceived it . This is one of the three films from John Malkovich, Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith's Mr. Mudd Productions that feature struggling teenagers; the other two are Ghost World and Juno . </P> <P> The film is set against the background of a young student, Charlie (Logan Lerman), who has been suffering from clinical depression from childhood setbacks and has recently been discharged from a mental health care institution to begin his adaptation to a normal lifestyle as a young high school student . Charlie is uneasy about beginning his freshman year of high school; he is shy and finds difficulty in making friends, but he connects with his English teacher, Mr. Anderson (Paul Rudd). </P>

Who directed the perks of being a wallflower