Monday, October 18, 2010

Box Office Attractions - ESTHER WILLIAMS

I recently started a new series called Box Office Attractions that focuses on one star at a time and show when they were at their most successful in their careers. I did Doris Day last week and now it's Esther Williams. I know these two posts will make my friend and co-blogger Dawn very happy.

Esther Williams had a superlative record at the box office. She wasn't America's Mermaid for nothing. Most of her films were huge hits. And from 1945 to 1950, she yielded at least one top 20 hit each year. Here's the breakdown below:

THRILL OF A ROMANCE (1945) Film rank that year: (8) Box office earnings: $4.3 million

EASY TO WED (1946) Film rank that year: (15) Box office earnings: $4.0 million

THIS TIME FOR KEEPS (1947) Film rank that year: (16) Box office earnings: $3.6 million

FIESTA (1947) Film rank that year: (20) Box office earnings: $3.5 million

ON AN ISLAND WITH YOU (1948) Film rank that year: (18) Box office earnings: $3.2 million

NEPTUNE'S DAUGHTER (1949) Film rank that year: (10) Box office earnings: $3.5 million

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME (1949) Film rank that year: (11) Box office earnings: $3.4 million

DUCHESS OF IDAH0 (1950) Film rank that year: (19) Box office earnings: $2.6 million

And while she didn't place anymore films in the top 20 after 1950, Esther still had several more successful films including Skirts Ahoy! (1952), Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), and Dangerous When Wet (1953).

All figures supplied by Box Office Report at http://www.boxofficereport.com/

2 comments:

Dawn said...

Monty, This is an awesome article! Thanks for posting.

monty said...

Thanks Dawn. They do seem to be very interesting.