Marilyn Monroe: Box Office Results with Inflation for her Best and Worst movies.
84#7 Bus Stop(Movie Score 56.16)...she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance.
Marilyn Monroe(1926-1962), made 33 movies between 1947 and 1961. Most of her early films were either uncredited or very small parts. Her first major role was in the B feature Ladies of the Chorus in 1948. After Ladies of the Chorus performed weakly at the box office, she started appearing in supporting parts in bigger budget movies like The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. In early 1952, she admitted to posing for nude photos. In an interview, she said she did the photos because she was unable to pay her rent, the resulting publicity made the public curious about the struggling actress. The rest of 1952 was a coming out party for Marilyn Monroe. Three of her movies, Monkey Business, Clash By Night and Don't Bother To Knock were successful at the box office. All the parts were supporting parts but they were marketed as Marilyn Monroe films. By the time 1953 came around, she was a much in demand actress. During the next seven years she made classic films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How To Marry A Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch and her best film Some Like It Hot. In 1962 she started working on Something's Got to Give, she however only showed up for work 12 out of 35 days and was dismissed from the movie. Unfortunately in August of that year she was found dead at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 36.
In the table below, box office grosses are listed by inflated gross using ticket sales. Why use inflated vs actual grosses? The inflated gross makes it much easier to think about how an old movie would compare to today's movies. For example: Some Like It Hot grossed 25.1 million dollars and ranked 1st in 1959. In 2010 a movie grossing 25.1 million would have ranked 102nd for the year. By using tickets sold, we can figure out how much a old movie would have made today by multiplying tickets sold by average ticket price . If Some Like It Hot would have opened in 2010....it would have grossed 335.5 million and finished 2nd for the year....only Toy Story 3 would have out performed it. My favorite Marilyn Monroe is # 6 Monkey Business. See where your favorite Marilyn Monroe is ranked on the following table.
Anne Baxter, Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis in 1950's All About Eve...Monroe's 8th biggest hit.
Marilyn Monroe's Top Ten Box Office Movies in 2011 Inflated Dollars.
Movie Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office(mil)
| Co-Stars
|
|---|---|---|
#1 Some Like It Hot (1959)
| 232.10 million
| Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis
|
#2 How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)
| 213.10 million
| Betty Grable/Lauren Bacall
|
#3 The Seven Year Itch (1955)
| 201.90 million
| Tom Ewell
|
#4 There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
| 190.00 million
| Ethel Merman
|
#5 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
| 148.70 million
| Jane Russell
|
#6 River of No Return (1954)
| 144.70 million
| Robert Mitchum
|
#7 Bus Stop (1956)
| 135.20 million
| Don Murray
|
#8 All about Eve (1950)
| 112.90 million
| Bette Davis
|
#9 The Misfits (1961)
| 94.60 million
| Clark Gable/Montgomery Clift
|
#10 Niagara (1953)
| 68.40 million
| Joseph Cotten
|
Marilyn Monroe in 1953's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes...her 5th best movie according to critics and audiences.
Marilyn Monroe's Top Ten Movies based on critics and audience voting.
Movie Year
| Critics Audience Score
| Co-Stars
|
|---|---|---|
#1 All about Eve (1950)
| 93%
| Bette Davis
|
#2 Some Like It Hot (1959)
| 92%
| Tony Curtis/Jack Lemmon
|
#3 The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
| 87%
| Sterling Hayden
|
#4 The Misfits (1961)
| 84%
| Clark Gable/Eli Wallach
|
#5 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
| 84%
| Jane Russell
|
#6 How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)
| 80%
| Betty Grable/Lauren Bacall
|
#7 The Seven Year Itch (1955)
| 79%
| Tom Ewell
|
#8 Clash by Night (1952)
| 76%
| Barbara Stanwyck/Robert Ryan
|
#9 Don't Bother To Knock (1952)
| 75%
| Richard Widmark
|
#10 Monkey Business (1952)
| 75%
| Cary Grant
|
Marilyn Monroe in the classic comedy 1959's Some Like It Hot....ranked by Movie Score as her #1 movie.
The following Marilyn Monroe movies are ranked by Movie Scores. The information can be sorted by any of the categories provided.
Rank
| Movie / Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office (Millions)
| Tickets (Millions)
| Movie Score
| Critics Audience Score
| Nom / Win
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#1
| Some Like It Hot (1959)
| 232.10
| 29.20
| 81.08
| 92%
| 06 / 01
|
#2
| All about Eve (1950)
| 139.10
| 17.50
| 69.62
| 93%
| 14 / 06
|
#3
| How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)
| 213.10
| 26.79
| 68.72
| 80%
| 01 / 00
|
#4
| The Seven Year Itch (1955)
| 201.90
| 25.39
| 67.52
| 79%
| 00 / 00
|
#5
| Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
| 148.70
| 18.70
| 62.36
| 84%
| 00 / 00
|
#6
| There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)
| 190.00
| 23.89
| 63.12
| 67%
| 03 / 00
|
#7
| Bus Stop (1956)
| 135.20
| 17.00
| 56.16
| 74%
| 01 / 00
|
#8
| River of No Return (1954)
| 144.70
| 18.20
| 50.63
| 62%
| 00 / 00
|
#9
| The Misfits (1961)
| 94.60
| 11.89
| 48.31
| 84%
| 00 / 00
|
#10
| The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
| 45.30
| 5.69
| 41.91
| 87%
| 04 / 00
|
#11
| Niagara (1953)
| 68.40
| 8.60
| 39.34
| 73%
| 00 / 00
|
Rank
| Movie / Year
| 2011 Inflated Box Office (Millions)
| Tickets (Millions)
| Movie Score
| Critics Audience Score
| Nom / Win
|
#12
| Monkey Business (1952)
| 63.60
| 8.00
| 38.97
| 75%
| 00 / 00
|
#13
| Don't Bother To Knock (1952)
| 47.70
| 6.00
| 37.54
| 80%
| 00 / 00
|
#14
| Let's Make Love (1960)
| 63.60
| 8.00
| 36.34
| 64%
| 01 / 00
|
#15
| Clash by Night (1952)
| 47.70
| 6.00
| 36.02
| 76%
| 00 / 00
|
#16
| We're Not Married (1952)
| 63.60
| 8.00
| 34.06
| 61%
| 00 / 00
|
#17
| The Prince and The Showgirl (1957)
| 46.90
| 5.90
| 33.18
| 68%
| 00 / 00
|
#18
| The Fireball (1950)
| 30.20
| 3.79
| 29.65
| 68%
| 00 / 00
|
#19
| Let's Make It Legal (1951)
| 43.70
| 5.50
| 29.55
| 60%
| 00 / 00
|
#20
| Love Happy (1949)
| 32.60
| 4.09
| 23.14
| 48%
| 00 / 00
|
#21
| Love Nest (1951)
| 24.60
| 3.09
| 23.12
| 52%
| 00 / 00
|
#22
| Ladies of the Chorus (1948)
| 7.20
| 0.89
| 21.04
| 56%
| 00 / 00
|
Movie Score card for Some Like It Hot.
Possible interesting facts about Marilyn Monroe.
1. She was never nominated for an Oscar in her career.
2. She received 2 Golden Globe nominations....winning for Some Like It Hot ....and receiving a nomination for Bus Stop.
3. The American Film Institute considers her one of the Top 10 movie stars of all time.
4. She was married to legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio and later married to legendary writer Arthur Miller.
5. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and baptized as Norma Jeane Baker.
6. Fox talent scout Ben Lyon has gotten the credit for the name Marilyn Monroe....Marilyn was from stage actress Marilyn Miller. The last name Monroe was Marilyn's mother's maiden name.
7. Her crypt is located at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California.
8. And finally ...her social security number was....563-32-0764
So what the heck are Movie Scores?
There are all kinds of ways to determine if you want to see or skip a movie. You can depend on your favorite critic.My favorites are Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin. You might go to Rotten Tomatoes to get the consensus of all the critics. You might watch the viewer ratings at Yahoo Movies and IMDB. You might depend on which movies are doing the best at the box office. You might wait for the end of the year awards. Movie Score takes all of these options and creates a mathematical equation that generates a score from 1 to 100. The higher the score the better the movie.
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Ah Marilyn. Not a great actress but a great movie star. She achieved a status as the Hollywood Sex Goddess that has no peer today, which is interesting because she usually played the sweet, innocent girl (With some exceptionsl like "Niagara") but she still came across as very sexy.
Her best performance was probably "Bus Stop". I believe she made her screen debut in the Marx Brothers last film "Love happy". She came to a tragic end, poor girl.
Very nice article. She has been gone way longer than I have been born. But I still like her. I loved Gentleman Prefered Blondes.
nice activity
Very interesting BERN1960....amazing that the dress would still look amazing after all those years
Hey Rob....according to IMDB her first credited role was The Shocking Miss Pilgrim.....Love Happy was her 7th film...but the first one where she received any kind of notice.... she is great in Bus Stop....but I found Don Murray(somehow got an Oscar nom) to be pretty bad in the role...thanks for commenting
Thank you KellyE and imranhaider for reading and commenting
She was a very sexy lady, three or four movies I have seen with her, I was not impressed with her acting or the movies.
the sexiest woman ever, novies not so good, but she was the sexiest woman ever
Interesting article. I have never seen a movie of hers, maybe I should rent one... Dying young only added to her fame
Thanks for reading and posting hinton and Yankees Rule...
b4murray...I have not seen that many of her movies....I can tell you to avoid Misfits great cast but very boring.....Some Like It Hot is a classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is entertaining thanks for commenting
Cogerson' Marilyn's Life story was just so sad. Her self worth was lessened and her true value was totally discarded. She was a beautiful woman.
Had great time reading about Marilyn! Thanks for the insight and the facts!
Hey Cogerson, how did the Oscar Show do on your predictions and what did you think of the show? There were some lovely gowns last night...it was good to see all the movie stars including KIRK DOUGLAS - HE WAS PRETTY GOOD...
Hey soldout....I agree her life story was sad, in the books I read about her....even her happy times were pretty short lived...thanks for commenting
Thanks for the compliment ellen....it is greatly appreciated
Bern 1960....My predictions are on Best Picture Winners page....but yes I agree Kirk Douglas at 94 stole the show
I actually liked "The Prince and the Showgirl." And "Some Like it Hot" has always been a personal favorite. Such a sad life for a beautiful woman.
Wonderful hub and so thorough too. Excellent job!
My entire life, I have heard of her, but not seen one single movie with her in it. I guess Some Like It Hot looks like her best movie.
Hemadi....a very sad life for a beautiful woman....as for The Prince and the Showgirl....was very popular in England...it actually got 5 BAFTA(British Academy Awards) nominations....in the states it was one of her least successful movies.
Thank you Denny Lyon for reading
Cole....well you should at least try and watch Some Like It Hot
nice article on a beautiful woman
Thank you for this fascinating account of the films of Marilyn Monroe. I enjoyed it. Well done!
Nice hub! The Seven Year Itch is a sentimental favorite for me, as it's the first Marilyn Monroe movie I ever saw, but overall I think your movie score system seems pretty accurate.
Thank you Janice and James for the compliment
GD Nunes...I agree with you about Seven Year Itch...I like it so much more than Some Like It Hot...thanks for reading and commenting
Nice write up, I have always loved her and her movies.
Nice hub. I was young when Marilyn was at her peak. I thought she was the sexiest thing on two legs. Her death was very shocking and sad. I especially liked your score comparisons. People forget that going to the movies back then was only 25 to 50 cents compared to $10 now!
Thanks you Hubs...for the compliment
tillsontitan....she was very pretty....it is sad about her early death....thanks for the compliments....I think inflated box office grosses...really help people realize how popular a movie was back when it was made..
Nice hub on a very sexy lady. voted up
Love Marilyn. I can remember seeing the news accounts of her death. The picture in my mind's eye of the gurney being wheeled out of her house is as clear as the picture in my minds eye of the Kennedy assassination as seen through the legs of an ironing board as I watched it on TV.
If she were in movies today, she would have a different and more fulfilling career, just as some of our more beautiful actresses today (e.g.Charlize Theron) would have had to struggle against the same sort of stereotyping Marilyn faced had they lived during her time.
Truman Capote really wanted Marilyn to play Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and done today, that would have been a good chance for her to do some real acting, but done back in those days, it would have been a disaster!
A woman with tales to tell but it's too late for that. I'm a fan! I still consider standing over a steam exhaust and capturing her pose! lol Up/Useful!!!!
Hey Sunshine.....that was indeed a very memorable part of movie history....another case of a person that left this earth way too soon....thanks for the comment.
If Sir laurence oliver had either co-starred or directed, not done both, the film might have been successful. Marilyn Monroe was a much better actress than hollywood allowed her to be. She had a tragic life.
Hey ruffridyer....I agree with you....I think if Olivier has only done one job the movie would have turned out much better, I have read that his personal life was in terrible turmoil during this time frame. Without a doubt Marilyn Monroe's life was the definition of tragic. I wonder where here career who have gone if she had lived until she was 80? thanks for reading.
Nice hub with good looking pics.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my hub Sun-Girl...it is greatly appreciated.
Okay. Here is a problem-do I list films where Marilyn was a star or include all her films including those with small parts which-because of their genres are favourites of mine. I will list my top ten of Monroe's films in terms of my favourites in alphabetical order. These I watch multiple times regardless of the mood I'm in:
All About Eve
The Ashphalt Jungle
Bus Stop
Don't Bother to Knock
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
How to Marry a Millionaire
The Misfits
Niagara
The Seven Year Itch
Some like It Hot
near runners up Monkey Business and Clash By Night
Hey Flora....I think you have chosen wisely, first of all your choices are limited as her career was so short....and secondly...you have picked really good movies. I like your list except for The Misfits....I have tried watching that movie twice now...and but times I could not figure why so many people think the movie is a classic. As always thanks for reading and commenting.
re: The Misfits: The reason why I love it-can't speak for others-is that it is the final film for both MM and CG. And I can't help but be in awe of the fact that when this was being filmed, they had no way of knowing this. Gable died days after completing the film. Monroe was fired from her next film and then died suddenly. Interesting note about the kind of man Gable was. Monroe and writer Aurther Miller were married at the time. He wrote the screenplay for her, but their relationship deteriorated over the course of the film. as a result, Miller started rewriting the script and making her part less meaty and actually ruining thescript. When Gable read the rewritten pages he declared that unless the original script remained, he would walk off the film.
Hey Flora, that was very cool on Gable's part to make them stick to the original script. I remember it took me awhile to finally see the movie...and maybe my expectations were too high....I mean a John Huston directed film starring Gable, Monroe, Clift and Eli Wallach.....is should have been a great classic.....thanks for the update.
Love this woman. "Put your lipstick on, hair up and deal with what is coming at you" kind of woman. Even when her life was a mess. True lady.
Thanks for stopping by Draigcoch.....I think I have seen five more of her movies since writting this hub...and I agree 100% she was a true lady.
Marilyn was so beautiful, wasn't she? I am writing a hub right now about dressing like a celebrity for Halloween and I am including Marilyn Monroe. I just knew you had to have a hub on her! I would like to link your hub to the Marilyn Monroe section of my hub, although you probably don't need any help driving traffic to your hubs. You are pretty famous yourself on Hubpages. :-)
Hey Jeannieinabottle....thanks for the compliment, thanks for the comments, and thanks for the link.....they are all greatly appreciated. Marilyn was very beautiful, I actually think she got more beautiful the older she got...such a shame that she has such a tough life. I look forward to reading your hub about celebrity Halloween costumes...dressing like Marilyn would be classic.
OH! Finally someone I KNOW ALL ABOUT!! I've seen every single movie, each one at least a dozen times. I've read every book & article about her from day one. Even as a pre-teen I was a Marylin lover. Yes, her screen personna was the Sex-Kitten but not everyone knows she was so much more than that. Norma Jean had an incredibly high IQ and in her private life she enjoyed history and literature and poetry. I better stop now or I'll write a book........LOVE this one EXTRA special, Cogerson!
Very impressive fpherj48....I am a serious movie buff and I have only seen 5 of her movies...I guess I have some work to do....thanks for a look at Marilyn Monroe the person rather than Marilyn Monroe the actress...I am very glad to see you liked this hub so much...your comments are greatly appreciated.
you've only seen 5? Oh, dear. I've seen 15.
Yep I have been a lack on my Marilyn Monroe movies....but I have seen 4 of the 5 in the last couple of years....the only one I saw years ago was Some Like It Hot. I will get better. LOL.
I saw some of Marilyn Monroe's movies. She was so beautiful! She seemed like she had an innocense about her and sweetness. I saw "The Seven Year Itch." She was wonderful! Its too bad about her death. Great Hub!
Hey gail641. Thanks for checking out my Monroe hub, her entire life was very sad and her death was way too soon. Thanks for the comment and the compliment.
Your welcome. Her death was way too soon.
Ladies and Gentlemen. May I include that Miss Monroe was and still a great actress. Not many stars these days can actually do what Marilyn did. The lady sang, dance, did comedy, drama, even action. And at the same time, retained herr extra- ordinary sexiness. Her talent is one of the reasons her films are still as popular as ever and still a major star today.
Ladies and Gentlemen. May I include that Miss Monroe was and still a great actress. Not many stars these days can actually do what Marilyn did. The lady sang, dance, did comedy, drama, even action. And at the same time, retained herr extra- ordinary sexiness. Her talent is one of the reasons her films are still as popular as ever and still a major star today.
BERN1960 14 months ago
Interesting Fact: Debbie Reynolds was on Ophra very recently with her daughter Carrie Fisher. Debbie Reynolds has been buying up movie items such as dresses, etc. and she showed the dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in The Seven Year Itch. She is selling some items as she said it is her savings for old age. Missed it as to how she is selling the items such as auction or E-Bay...the dress had faded somewhat with age but looked great...Perhaps one does not know these facts. In Las Vegas she had quite a museum at the hotel a few years ago.