and darkly humorous, A Christmas Story deserves its status as a holiday perennial". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin awarded the film a four-star rating, calling the film "delightful" and "truly funny for kids and grown-ups alike" with "wonderful period flavor". On December 24, 2007, AOL ranked the film their #1 Christmas film of all time. IGN ranked the film the top holiday-themed film of all time. In 2012, a Marist Poll named the film the favorite holiday film in the US. In 2019, a poll commissioned by Tubitv and conducted by Onepoll also ranked the film Best Holiday Movie Ever. Lawsuit In August 2011, Zack Ward, who played Scut Farkus in the film, sued Warner Bros. and Enesco over merchandising for the film after the company authorized a figure resembling his character from the film without his permission. It was revealed that when he signed on to play that character, he did not receive any merchandising rights because of a mishap with his contract. The lawsuit was dropped in January 2012 after Warner Bros. revealed that the figurine showed a "generic face" that has been used on them since 2006 and that statute of limitations had run out. In December 2012, Ward sued Warner Bros. again over his image after attending the annual Christmas Story charity fundraiser convention in Cleveland in November 2010, where a fan handed him a Christmas Story board game, playing cards, and calendar showing his face. The lawsuit was settled three days later. Broadcasting and home media release Television The film first aired on television on premium networks The Movie Channel, HBO, and Showtime as early as December 1985, and quickly attracted a growing following. In December 1987, the film premiered on SuperStation WTBS and local television stations. In 1989 and 1990, TBS showed it Thanksgiving night, while in 1991 and 1992, they aired it the night after. 24 Hours of A Christmas Story Turner Broadcasting has maintained ownership of the broadcast rights, and since the mid-1990s, they have continued to air the film increasingly on both TBS & TNT all throughout the holiday season annually. TCM has also aired the film many times, as well. By 1995, it was aired on those networks a combined six times on December 24–26, and in 1996, it