Want to know the best Sonja Henie movies? How about the worst Sonja Henie movies? Curious about Sonja Henie box office grosses or which Sonja Henie movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Sonja Henie movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Sonja Henie (1912-1969) was a 3-time Norwegian Olympic Champion figure skater. After her skating career she turned her attention to Hollywood. She very quickly became one the most popular stars working. Quigley Publications’ annual survey of Top Box Office stars listed her in the Top 10 three times. She was the 8th biggest star in 1937, 3rd biggest in 1938 and 10th in 1939. Her IMDb page shows 13 acting credits from 1927-1949. This page will rank 11 Sonja Henie movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.
Sonja Henie Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Sonja Henie Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Sonja Henie films by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Sonja Henie films by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Sonja Henie films by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Sonja Henie films by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Sonja Henie film received.
- Sort Sonja Henie films by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Sonja Henie Table
- Eight Sonja Henie movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 72.72% of her movies listed. Happy Landing (1938) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Sonja Henie movie grosses $148.30 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 3 Sonja Henie movies are rated as good movies…or 27.27% of her movies. Sun Valley Serenade (1941) was her highest rated movie while My Lucky Star (1938) was her lowest rated movie.
- Three Sonja Henie movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 27.27% of her movies.
- Zero Sonja Henie movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 10 Sonja Henie movies scored higher than that average….or 90.90% of her movies. Sun Valley Serenade (1941) got the the highest UMR Score while The Countess of Monte Cristo (1949) got the lowest UMR Score.
Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About Sonja Henie
1. Sonja Henie was born in Kristiania (now Oslo) Norway in 1912.
2. Sonja Henie’s father, Wilhelm Henie, was a World Cycling Champion. Sonja and her siblings were encouraged to take up a variety of sports at a young age. Sonja initially showed talent at skiing, then followed her older brother, Leif, to take up figure skating.
3. As a girl Sonja Henie also was a nationally ranked tennis player, and a skilled swimmer and equestrienne.
4. Sonja Henie won the first of an unprecedented ten consecutive World Figure Skating Championships in 1927 at the age of fourteen.
5. Sonja Henie is credited with being the first figure skater to adopt the short skirt costume in figure skating, wear white boots, and make use of dance choreography. Her innovative skating techniques and glamorous demeanor transformed the sport permanently and confirmed its acceptance as a legitimate sport in the Winter Olympics
6. Sonja Henie won 3 Olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1936. She was the first skater to parlay her athletic success into a lucrative career.
7. Throughout her movie career at 20th Century-Fox, Sonja Henie was a savvy contract negotiator, and at one point was paid more per picture than Shirley Temple, who was a much bigger box office draw (the year Henie peaked at #3, Temple was still #1). Fox studio head Daryl F. Zanuck was said to resent the exorbitant fees Henie got for her work, and was reputedly delighted when her contact finally expired in the early 1940s.
8. After her film career had run its course, Sonja Henie stayed in the public eye by producing and starring in a series of live, touring ice shows and extravaganzas until just before her death in 1969.
9. Sonja Henie was married three times…..she did not have any children.
10. Check out Sonja Henie’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Sonja Henie was very popular in her day, successful enough for Republic Pictures to try and establish chekoslovakian Vera Hruba Ralston as a “second Sonja” while Monogram trying their luck with a Lady from Britain called “Belita”. While Belita is totally forgotten nowadays except by crazy people like Lupino, Miss Ralston has become an infamous footnote in the history of Hollywood.
I have seen 4 of the above listed movies plus her failed, self-funded comeback picture Hello London from 1958, that isn’t even listed among her IMDB credits- nor among her costar’s Michael Wilding…but believe me, the movie does exist 😉 The Henie movies I’ve seen are no great work of art, but pleasant entertainment with some spectacular skating scenes.
Hey Lupino
1. Tally count….you are the winner so far….as Flora, Steve and myself have a combined total of 0…..so your 4 is easily the winner.
2. Great information on Vera Hruba Ralston and Hello London.
3. Shocked that IMDb does not have Hello London listed….I will have to do some research on that movie…..as that one movie represents almost 10% of her movie output.
4. The ice skating scenes must be spectacular….based on how well most of her movies did at the box office.
Thanks for checking out our latest page…and for some excellent feedback.
Wow,thank for filling out my request for Sonja Henie box office numbers. Now I’ll keep watch on her filmography on TCM.
Hey Kevin…thanks for commenting…I was trying to remember who made the request…..but now you have answered that question. I will be sure to give you credit for the suggestion when I update my Request page.
I am right there with you, Bruce and Steve. I know the name Sonja Henie, but I have not seen a single movie of hers.
This might be a first….all three of us…sitting on a goose egg. It might never happen again. Thanks for stopping by.
Hey Steve….I am right there with you. I have seen her name on the Quigley list…but was not aware of who she was….so my tally count is a big goose egg. Gold medal champions get lots of attention…so I can see her becoming a star back then. Recently somebody (I can’t remember who) asked for some Henie numbers…..well when I realized I had 9 of 11 movies in the database…I figured I should go ahead and do a UMR page on her. Thanks for checking out a movie star that you were not too familiar with…..:)
Have to confess you’ve lost me here Bruce. Ice skating star? The name is sort of familiar but I don’t recognise any of the film titles.
So wait a sec the old Hollywood musicals had their swimming star – Esther Williams, and also an Ice Skating star – Sonja Henie? I see… no pole vault star? Throwing the discus? Sprinting?
Interesting page…
Steve
“no pole vault star? Throwing the discus? Sprinting?”
Jim Thorpe was the 1912, and Glenn Morris the 1936, Olympic decathlon champion. Both appeared in movies, so cover those skills. Herman Brix (later Bruce Bennett) was the1928 Olympic silver medalist in the shot put.