Want to know the best Myrna Loy (1905-1993) movies? How about the worst Myrna Loy movies? Curious about Myrna box office grosses or which Myrna Loy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Myrna Loy 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.
At the suggestion of Robwrite, I began researching Myrna Loy’s career about two months ago for this movie page. My knowledge of Myrna Loy was pretty much limited to… she had been in the successful Thin Man series and had appeared in a couple of Cary Grant movies. Other than those two things, I did not really think there was much to really know about Myrna Loy’s career…..boy was I wrong.
“Myrna Loy was one of cinema’s brightest stars. Beautiful, talented, warm, witty, wise and urbane, she swept all before her with a startling succession of box-office hits that lasted from 1932 until 1941, when wartime commitments overtook her career. Adored by moviegoers, Myrna was crowned “Queen of Hollywood” in 1938, with twenty million fans casting their votes in the largest poll of its kind ever conducted. Spencer Tracy was besotted with her, Valentino and Barrymore smitten and President Roosevelt obsessed, whilst Miss Loy had to push Gable off her front-step for “getting fresh”! Her extraordinary profile also supplied plastic surgeons with the most requested image of the 1930s, despite Myrna never having gone under the knife. Loy also managed to royally piss off Hitler by speaking out against his treatment of Jews and, with Chaplin, had the distinction of heading his blacklist”.
“Yet, somehow, Myrna Loy – at her peak more popular than Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn combined – seems almost forgotten. Whether this can be attributed to her gracious acting style (allowing her leading men to dominate), the lack of scandal in her private life, or the relative scarcity of her films in this country, I’m not sure, but it is a situation that deserves to be rectified”. The previous two paragraphs come from the Myrna Loy forum at Empire.com by Rick 7.
Her IMDb page shows 138 acting credits from 1925-1982. This page will rank Myrna Loy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies and many of her early silent movies were not included in the rankings.
Myrna Loy Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Myrna Loy 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 Myrna Loy movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Myrna Loy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Myrna Loy movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Myrna Loy movies 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 Myrna Loy movie received.
- Sort Myrna Loy movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search button to make this a very interactive page. For example type in William Powell to see 13 Powell/Loy movies….or type Clark Gable in the search box to bring up all of the Gable/Loy movies….or type in….I think you get the idea.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Myrna LoyTable
- Twenty-nine Myrna Loy movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 41.42% of her movies listed. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Myrna Loy movie grosses $118.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 52 of Myrna Loy’s movies are rated as good movies…or 74.28% of her movies. After The Thin Man (1936) was her highest rated movie while Parnell (1937) was her lowest rated movie.
- Fifteen Myrna Loy movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 21.42% of her movies.
- Five Myrna Loy movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 7.14% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 49 Myrna Loy movies scored higher than that average….or 70.00% of her movies. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) got the the highest UMR Score while Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Myrna Loy
1. Loy had 80 screen credits before finally becoming a star with the release of the low budget surprise hit….1934’s The Thin Man. This UMR page looks at her career from 1933-1980, with a few of her pre-1933 releases.
2. During her early years…..Loy appeared in the first ever European/American co-production…1925’s Ben-Hur…..she appeared in the first movie to use a movie score…..1926’s Don Juan…..she appeared in the first talkie….1927’s The Jazz Singer……and she appeared in the first ever filmed operetta….1929’s The Desert Song.
3. Myrna Loy appeared in over 120 movies, but never received an Oscar® nomination or a Golden Globe® nomination for any of her acting roles. She did receive an honorary Oscar® for career achievement in 1991.
4. In 1921, Loy posed for Harry Winebrenner’s statue titled “Spiritual,” which remained in front of Venice High School throughout the 20th century and can be seen in the opening scenes of the 1978 film Grease.
5. Gangster John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama which starred Loy, Clark Gable and William Powell.
6. Loy and William Powell appeared in 14 movies together. 6 times they appeared as Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man movie series (1934-1947). When looking at the table above….8 of their movies finished in Loy’s Top Ten according to critics and audiences.
7. Check out the list of co-stars for Loy…..Clark Gable (7 movies), Cary Grant (3 movies), Warner Baxter (3 movies), Spencer Tracy (2 films), and with one film….James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman, Frederich March, Will Rogers, Charlton Heston, Tyrone Power, and of course Burt Reynolds.
8. The first part of her career was in silent movies…she was typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent…..her first film her character was called Vamp…..these roles kind of solidified her exotic non-America image…..which is strange as she was born and raised in Montana.
9. Loy’s big break? Loy attended a Hollywood party with director W.S. Dyke. At the party Dyke detected a wit and sense of humor that Loy’s films had not revealed. He then chose Loy for the Nora Charles role in The Thin Man. The success of The Thin Man changed how Hollywood viewed her, and her roles got bigger and better.
10. With the outbreak of World War II, she abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.
Check out Myrna Loy‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Not enough stats for you?….Then check out 37 Myrna Loy worldwide adjusted grosses
- After the Thin Man (1936) $355.90 million in adjusted box office
- Animal Kingdom (1932) $58.10 million in adjusted box office
- Another Thin Man (1939) $267.40 million in adjusted box office
- The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) $384.70 million in adjusted box office
- The Bad Man (1930) $84.00 million in adjusted box office
- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) $859.60 million in adjusted box office
- Bride of the Regiment (1930) $69.70 million in adjusted box office
- The Desert Song (1929) $232.20 million in adjusted box office
- Double Wedding (1937) $264.40 million in adjusted box office
- Evelyn Prentice (1934) $122.30 million in adjusted box office
- The Great Ziegfeld (1936) $525.20 million in adjusted box office
- I Love You Again (1940) $185.30 million in adjusted box office
- Isle of Escape (1930) $37.10 million in adjusted box office
- Libeled Lady (1936) $306.00 million in adjusted box office
- Love Crazy (1941) $200.70 million in adjusted box office
- Lucky Night (1939) $130.20 million in adjusted box office
- Manhattan Melodrama (1934) $129.00 million in adjusted box office
- Man-Proof (1938) $136.90 million in adjusted box office
- The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) $68.30 million in adjusted box office
- Men In White (1934) $152.20 million in adjusted box office
- Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) $197.50 million in adjusted box office
- New Morals For Old (1932) $36.60 Night Flight (1933) $112.30 million in adjusted box office
- Noah’s Ark (1928) $191.00 million in adjusted box office
- Parnell (1937) $204.70 million in adjusted box office
- Pay As You Enter (1928) $11.30 million in adjusted box office
- Petticoat Fever (1936) $121.90 million in adjusted box office
- The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) $97.20 million in adjusted box office
- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) $224.10 million in adjusted box office
- The Show of Shows (1929) $209.90 million in adjusted box office
- Song of the Thin Man (1947) $142.40 million in adjusted box office
- Test Pilot (1938) $487.60 million in adjusted box office
- The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) $193.90 million in adjusted box office
- The Thin Man, The (1934) $159.90 million in adjusted box office
- Too Hot To Handle (1938) $299.20 million in adjusted box office
- The Truth About Youth (1930) $37.00 million in adjusted box office
- Under a Texas Moon (1930) $107.50 million in adjusted box office
- Whipshaw (1935) $97.60 million in adjusted box office
- Wife vs Secretary (1936) $232.70 million in adjusted box office
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1 Back in the 1980s the Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch amusingly told an interviewer that when negotiating with Heads of State like himself British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a notoriously stubborn woman, would repeated quote like a mantra any viewpoint that she held as if constant repeats made it right despite evidence to the contrary presented by others. It has been said elsewhere that such an attitude can reflect “one definition of madness.”
2 However I notice that whereas initially this site described Myrna as “The most successful box office actress of all time” it has recently taken to saying that she is the greatest theatrical “ticket seller” among women.
3 The slight change in definition could merely reflect a random choice of words but it occurs to me that just possibly my own view that whatever her contribution to the ticket sales of her movies at least it does not necessarily mean that in real terms those movies made the most money in today’s dollars.
4 If the different wording does indeed mean a fresh perspective in the matter then the ole Work Horse escapes the fear that the debate that has raged over the past few years has changed him into the Mad Hatter!” Mrs Thatcher would have stood firm on whatever her own initial description was!
5 It is true that taken at face value the Cogerson ranking system genuinely establish Myrna as the biggest ticket seller in the UNITED STATES within the criteria that the site uses. However whilst that criteria is admirably objective it does not and probably cannot “weight” Myrna’s personal contribution to the success of her films
6 In fairness Cogerson does broadly qualify matters by (1) listing –indeed virtually boasting – in Possibly Interesting Facts about Myrna that in her movies she enjoyed the collaboration of an inordinate number of commercially mint-making male stars of her heyday and indeed subsequent decades (2) publishing evidence from Melvyn Douglas that important and popular though M-s Loy undoubtedly was MGM saw her as last in a pecking order of its greatest stars in those days, with frequent co-stars of hers like Gable and Bill Powell and even Myrna’s close friend my Joan ranked above her.
7 To accept as definitive the Cogerson pecking order one would be obliged to take at face value the site’s listing in its 1940s Decade review Walter Brennan as a more successful ticket seller than The Duke, Hope, Cooper , Bogie, Tracy and Grant. If the legendary Mr McEnroe is a follower of this site I can hear him screaming “C’mon man – you CANNOT be serious!”
8 One would also assume from the 1950s Annual Review that Ernest Borgnine and Thelma Ritter were greater ticket sellers than AFI legend and Time Magazine’s selection as one of the 100 Greatest People of the entire 20th Century Mr Mumbles. I don’t know how the old “Superbrat” would feel about that but YOURS TRULY would certainly draw the line there!
9 According I would prefer the following description of Myrna’s status “Myrna Loy was a very important popular and talented actress who was well liked by her contemporaries in movies and she was also a crusader for the “civil rights” of others in her day. The films in which Myrna appeared probably sold more tickets than those of any other actress in the United States possibly partially because she had the good fortune to enjoy the presence in them of some of the greatest male superstars of her day and because of the longevity of her career she benefited long after she ceased to be a star from her films being opened and carried by later box office champs such as Newman, Doris Day, Rex Harrison and Burt Reynolds.”
10 That’s my own final take on the matter whatever further hyperbole appears about Myrna’s box office on this site because –
“It seems to be a childish belief of the elites and even intellectuals in England and America that whoever has the last word has won the argument.” [Leon Trotsky]
“Cogerson
March 3, 2018 at 11:05 pm
Hey Bob….you will be happy to know Myrna Loy just lost $59 million in domestic adjusted box office…..as Emma….just got a re-adjusted total…..but she is still the top ticket selling actress of all-time.”
MYRNA v THE FIELD
1 As Ronnie Reagan famously and effectively kept saying to Jimmy Carter in the TV debates for the 1980 Presidential election “There you go again!” Without being patronising I find most of your observations well informed and astute but at times I am afraid that for me at least you are a bit like the little girl in the nursery rhyme who “When she was good she was very, very good. But she was bad she was horrid.”
2 Despite the great wealth of important information that this site [and Mojo for more modern films] gives us there are too many imponderables, and overall we have far from sufficient data within our grasp [unless your name happens to be Joel Hirschhorn 3rd or 4th, a true chip of the old block] to anoint ANYONE King or Queen of the box office –
3 For example today’s far more buoyant overseas box office often makes difficult if not impossible comparisons between classic and modern era stars especially as despite the great work of this site estimates of old foreign revenues are in many cases overall far from complete or comprehensive where they do exist
4 Also as said previously on this site cheap tickets in the classic era mean that the actual revenues of those days would have relatively weak purchasing power today and of course although Wikipedia gives us some idea of the profit and loss situation in respect of MGM and RKO films overall we usually otherwise know little about actual profits and that in the end is what it’s all about!
5 And then there are “Home Marketing” [HM] revenues with DVD/Video and Blue Ray sales being at times massive for modern films even back as far as the early 1970s. For example The Numbers quotes precisely $213.12 million in domestic HM sales for the Lion King while Lee’s Movies site suggests that the domestic HM sales for Julia’s Pretty Women were a whopping $215.88 million and that even the 1972 Godpop has garnered $163.31 million in HE domestic revenues.
6 Also there is a good chance that Bruce Willis Moore’s grosses would go through the roof once his worldwide grosses and HE performance are taken into account. Lee’s Movies quotes for just two of his big hits Armageddon and 6th Sense mind-boggling overall domestic HM sales of $599.1 million [and none of the HM figures that I have quoted are adjusted for inflation and overseas revenues were probably excellent as well possibly especially in the case of Demi’s ex].
7 Added to the Willis Moore HM figures is the almost $2 billion in adjusted worldwide theatrical grosses for the same two films. Staggering! And yet we are told that this relatively underrated box office giant was not successful enough to get into the Cogerson Top 25 greatest stars from 1950 to 2010. Mamma Mia! [They’ll be seeing up to see what those that did get in were like” a paraphrasing of words by Col Hall in the Bilko TV series]
8 If only in the case of the ex-Mr Moore Split which he didn’t deserve nevertheless squared the circle and at last gave “unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar” but as it is this being the Cogerson site the more appropriate Biblical truism would seem to be that a prophet is without honour in his own country.
9 All of the foregoing need to be taken into account in Myrna’s case before we can confidently place the crown on her head. In addition you have listed the unusually large raft of male Legends in her movies but if we take at face value that she truly generated an adjusted $8.3 billion in domestic ticket sales then at least mathematical logic would dictate that the others contributed little or nothing to her grosses.
10 The reality is of course that Gable for example was box office gold in Myrna’s day and her films could fail to do exceptionally well with him and all of the other great stars in them only in some parallel universe – perhaps only “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” [“ME as big a ticket seller as Gable! Come off it!” Joe Yule Junior lapsing into a fit of laughter.]
11 Also I think you would find few takers if you insisted that Chuck didn’t count in Airport 1975, that Myrna and not my Doris was the main draw in the 1960 Midnight Lace, that Myrna and not the Newman husband and wife team was the audience magnet to the 1960 From The Terrace and the 9th cast-listed M-s Loy and not the billed-alone-above-the-title Burt Reynolds drew the crowds to the 1978 The End. However anyone still wishing to “dream on” should NOT look at the posters and cast lists for those movies on Wiki
12 “Melvyn Douglas and billing. Douglas – “Well, Freddie Bartholomew had first billing in Captains Courageous and that drove Spencer Tracy mad. I was billed fourth – and couldn’t have cared less. Joan Crawford once explained to me she was over Clark Gable and William Powell but under Norma Shearer. Powell was under Jean Harlow but ABOVE Bob Montgomery and MYRNA LOY. ?” [Cogerson Possibly Interesting facts on Melvyn’s page.”]
13 “When all other possibilities have been excluded what remains must be the truth.” Sherlock Holmes said and I think that on the evidence that we have the only truth that remains here is that the kindest word for M-s Loy’s description as THE box office Queen is hyperbole.
14 However without being condescending I believe that you are too learned about the cinema to truly believe that Myrna, popular and talented actress that she undoubtedly was, was a bigger box office star than Betty Grable, Liz Taylor, the child-star Shirley temple and my ladies Deanna, Doris and Joan all of whom “opened” droves of movies in their day.
15 Indeed I have come to the conclusion that you are simply once more trying to give us all a “grand time” by saying things that invoke merriment –
“Full well they laugh’d with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;”
Hey Bob…..great comment…you have covered lots of territory in this one. I guess all these Loy pokes finally woke the bear up…lol. I find your stats on HM to be very interesting. I wish there was a source that showed that information…..I think it would be pretty popular. Currently there is not even a good place to see which movies are performing well on streaming platforms.
I have read in numerous books that Loy was very popular overseas. That would help her cause even more. Garbo was better in worldwide grosses but Loy was not far behind. Once again this is a great comment. Good job Bob.
Cogerson
February 27, 2018 at 11:57 pm
Hey dcto…..Greatly appreciate all of your return comments on our Myrna Loy page. We have been having a Loy debate for years…..I am on your side of the debate….as I feel she was indeed one of the biggest stars of the 1930s and 1940s……and in the end….due to the length of her career…..is the Top Ticket Selling Actress of all-time. Thanks again for your input.
1 Ah that perennial Work Horse mantra about “the top Ticket Selling Actress of All Time” proving that, if I may paraphrase the time-worn cliché, you can’t teach an old Horse new tricks!
2 However maybe inadvertently the following paragraph 7 of the Possibly Interesting Facts on this page provides us with a more qualified and accurate assessment in the matter.
“Check out the list of co-stars for Loy…..Clark Gable (7 movies), Cary Grant (3 movies), Warner Baxter (3 movies), Spencer Tracy (2 films), and with one film….James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman, Frederich March, Will Rogers, Charlton Heston, Tyrone Power, and of course Burt Reynolds.”
3 That Myrna and the host of male box office Legends listed there are ALL getting FULL credit for selling the tickets for the movies that the latter shared with M-s Loy seems to disprove Rufus Ryker’s plea that “There’s only so many hands in a deck of cards Shane!”
4 ME? I could never be dogmatic that ANY actress/actor was the most successful of all time. Because of the very cheap ticket prices in real terms in Myrna’s day the 70 flicks in the domestic table above have the purchasing power today of $4.5 billion dollars according to the Consumer Price Index of the US Bureau of Labor Stats. The 2018 purchasing power of the 44 films in Julia Roberts’ Cogerson domestic table is $4.3 billion a difference in reality too close to call in view of the long time periods that have elapsed.
5 Moreover in Myrna’s day overseas film markets returned on average a ratio equal to only about 50% of domestic. In Myrna’s case the overseas share seems to be just very slightly short of the 50% and her total Cogerson WW gross for the 37 films in table 2 appears to average out at 67.3% domestic/32.7% foreign so on those ratios the actual worldwide grosses for her 70 flicks would have a purchasing power of $6.7 billion in 2018 money.
6 Even a quick glance at the Box office Mojo tables on Mojo’s Julia Roberts’ page will reveal that by contrast Julia’s overseas earnings actually exceed the domestic ones so that her WW grosses have the purchasing power of over $9 billion in today’s money compared with Myrna’s figure of $6.7 billion.
7 “Who’s the winner now?” [Bruce Willis Moore in 1993’s Striking Distance when he turns the tables on a taunting villain who has long been outwitting him.] There’s usually more than one way to look at something particularly in the light of the counsel that “Sir, there are lies, damn lies – and statistics!”
8 We live in a capitalist economy in which movies play their part as a business and the person regarded as most successful within a business is normally the one with a product that makes the most money and on the all the evidence Julia has an excellent claim to that achievement
9 Acting skills don’t come into the above argument but for what it’s worth IMDB records that Julia Roberts has won an Academy Award for best actress plus 3 nominations for best/supporting actress and 3 Golden Globe wins and 5 nominations in the best/supporting actress categories. Here’s what IMDB also has to say –
“MYRNA LOY – AWARDS
It looks like we don’t have any Awards for this title yet.
Be the first to contribute! “ C’mon Work Horse- accept the challenge! Tell them about Myrna’s Honorary Oscar!
Hey Bob….you will be happy to know Myrna Loy just lost $59 million in domestic adjusted box office…..as Emma….just got a re-adjusted total…..but she is still the top ticket selling actress of all-time.
WORK HORSE
1 Thanks for the update.but she has a long way to go to match the savage treatment that Mr Mumbles has received on this site, in rounded figures-
$30 million deducted from Julius Caesar
$ 50 million shaved off the 1978 Superman
$280 million denied for Superman Returns.
I think you may even have recently chipped away at his Sayonara WW figure as I’m near sure that when you first published the 1957 Review you gave that movie an adjusted figure of a flat $600 million whereas it has now dipped slightly below that. I take it the spammers can’t tamper with your figures! However watch this space!
2 I presume you’ll also in due course give the site another update on your mother. I think that in US your Mother’s Day is on 13 May this year but our Mother’s Day is next Sunday 11 March. Over here you are expected to buy a present for not just your Mom but your wife if she is the mother of children from your own and/or any other marriage.
3 So I’ll be out a few £s next week but mothers are worth it aren’t they? Certainly instead of throwing money at Mr Moore for non-existent contributions to movies you should save up and buy W o C a super present on 13 May. She too deserves it not least for looking after the big baby of hers that runs this site !!
4 Indeed treat yourself to a nice present because as Myrna Freener said in to Hackman in Best Shot/Hoosiers “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s a** every day but Mister you ain’t had a break since you got here!” In your own case WH since the New Year you have had the W o C health shock and now your mom’s nightmare [hopefully short lived].
Hey dcto…..Greatly appreciate all of your return comments on our Myrna Loy page. We have been having a Loy debate for years…..I am on your side of the debate….as I feel she was indeed one of the biggest stars of the 1930s and 1940s……and in the end….due to the length of her career…..is the Top Ticket Selling Actress of all-time. Thanks again for your input.