It’s a Wonderful Life has enchanted viewers for more than seventy years. What was originally received by a lukewarm audience has become a Christmas classic without equal. Featuring emotionally moving performances by James Stewart, Donna Reed, and the rest of the cast, It’s a Wonderful Life poses the question, “What would the world be like if I was never born?” George Bailey launches this inquiry from the brink of a bridge, catapulting his Christmas Eve journey into a parallel timeline that never saw his birth. Even if, like us, you’ve seen this film dozens of times, we’d wager there are some interesting, even shocking, facts that you just didn’t know about this 1946 Christmas masterpiece!
#1: The Film Was a Flop at First
It’s hard to believe in the truth of this fact, but It’s a Wonderful Life performed poorly in theaters when it first debuted in 1946. Critics didn’t like it, and viewers were tepid at best. Overshadowed at the time by other (forgettable) movies at the box office, Time Magazine was the only media outlet that saw what millions of viewers would later also come to see, writing in their review that “It’s a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie.”
