including The New York Times and CBS News, have dated the film to 1940 or the early 1940s. The real Shepherd was several years older than Ralphie; Shepherd was intentionally dishonest about many of the details of his own life and regularly obscured the line between fact and fiction in his writings. A teacher named "Miss Shields" was Shepherd's second-grade teacher at Warren G. Harding Elementary School in 1928. By 1939, Shepherd had already graduated from high school. Release and reception Initially overlooked as a sleeper film, A Christmas Story was released a week before Thanksgiving 1983 to moderate success, earning about $2 million in its first weekend. Film critic Roger Ebert initially gave the film three stars out of four, but later gave the film four stars and added the film to his "Great Movies" list and suggested the film had only modest success because holiday-themed films were not popular at the time. Vincent Canby's mostly negative The New York Times review complained that "the movie's big comic pieces tend only to be exceedingly busy. Though Mr Billingsley, Mr Gavin [sic], Miss Dillon and the actress who plays Ralphie's school teacher (Tedde Moore) are all very able, they are less funny than actors in a television situation comedy". In Canada, the film would go on to win two categories in the 5th Genie Awards, for Director Bob Clark and Best Original Screenplay for the work of Leigh Brown, Bob Clark and Jean Shepherd. By Christmas 1983, the film was no longer playing at most venues but remained in about a hundred theatres until January 1984. Gross earnings were just over $19.2 million. In the years since, due to television airings and home video release, A Christmas Story has become widely popular and is now an annual Christmas special. The film was produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The rights to the film were acquired by Turner Entertainment Co. after Ted Turner's purchase of MGM's pre-1986 film library. Subsequently, Time Warner purchased Turner Entertainment, and currently holds rights to the film as Warner Bros. Discovery. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has grown considerably and it is regarded by some as one of the best films of 1983. Based on 59 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 90%, with an average score of 8.60/10. The site's consensus reads: "Both warmly nostalgic