How Much Does This Christmas Story Star Get in Residuals?
We've all got our favorite Christmas movies. My top 3 are: Scrooged, Die Hard, and Elf (A Muppets Christmas Carol gets an honorable mention). Your list is most likely different from mine, and everybody else's for that matter. One thing we can all agree on, like the movie or not - A Christmas Story is a Christmas classic. Out of all of the flicks that start running on a continuous loop from Black Friday till New Years Day, ACS gets the highest frequency.
One of the most memorable characters from the movie is the red-headed, coonskin-cap wearing, bully Scut Farkus. Canadian actor Zack Ward delivered such an awesome performance in my opinion, he kind of mirrors the bullies that everyone has experienced. The character he plays helps you identify with Ralphie's character so much more. Scut and henchman Grover Dill terrorized Ralphie and company intermittently for most of the film's 1 hour and 34 minute run time. The abuse stops when Ralphie finally steps up to the plate and gives him a whole buffet full of knuckle sandwiches with a heaping helping of cuss-words.
Zack Ward still gets residual checks from the movie to this day. Page 6 reports that he gets a check for about $1,800 every 2 years, but since the film was shot in Canada - it's in Canadian money. He puts every penny (or loonie in Canada, eh?) into an account for his grandmother! That's right Farkus is a great big old sweetie after all!
Here's a couple of quick facts about the movie:
The movie is based on a 1966 Jean Shepherd book titled In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.
The story was published in excerpts in Playboy Magazine before the movie was made.
Peter Billingsly (Ralphie) actually said the real f-word over and over again to get the right take for the "Fudge" scene
There were 3 leg lamps used in production of the movie. All 3 were broken during the process. Fra-gil-e indeed.