Want to know the best Esther Williams movies? How about the worst Esther Williams movies? Curious about Esther Williams box office grosses or which Esther Williams movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Esther Williams movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Esther Williams (1921-2013) was an American competitive swimmer who become one of the most popular actresses working in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1942 and 1953 she appeared in an incredible 17 $100 million (adjusted gross) box office hits. Esther Williams’ IMDb page shows 31 acting credits from 1942-1963. This page will rank 24 Esther Williams movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances and short films were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: Dan should be a happy camper….not only is this Esther Williams page one of his requests….but the next two current UMR pages will also be Dan requests. So Dan hits the trifecta….make sure you save that ticket. Since Esther Williams spent most of her career at MGM we were able to find not only her domestic box office grosses but her worldwide box office grosses. Gotta admit before putting this page together my basic knowledge of Esther Williams (I have only seen one of her movies) was….”she was the swimming lady”. After putting this page together and seeing her phenomenal box office numbers…now my thought is “goodness gracious movie audiences back in the 1940s and 1950s loved musical swimming movies”.
Esther Williams Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Esther Williams 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 Esther Williams movies by co-stars of her movies and by by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Sort Esther Williams movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Esther Williams movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Esther Williams movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Esther Williams 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 Esther Williams movie received.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Esther Williams Table
- Seventeen Esther Williams movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 70.83% of her movies listed.
- An average Esther Williams movie grossed $146.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 12 of Esther Williams’s movies are rated as good movies…or 50.00% of her movies. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) is her highest rated movie while Magic Fountain (1963) is her lowest rated movie.
- Four Esther Williams movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 16.66% of her movies.
- One Esther Williams movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 4.16% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 20 Esther Williams movie scored higher that average….or 83.33% of her movies. Bathing Beauty (1944) got the the highest UMR Score while Magic Fountain (1963) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Esther Williams
1. Esther Jane Williams was born in Inglewood, California, on August 8, 1921.
2. After breaking many swimming records Esther Williams was a strong contender for an Olympic Gold Medal in the 1940 Summer Olympics. When the outbreak of World War II ended that dream….she joined Billy Rose’s Aquacade. While performing at the Aquacade she was spotted by MGM scouts and signed to a MGM contract.
3. One of the clauses in Esther Williams’ MGM contract was it would be 9 months before she appeared on camera…. to allow for acting, singing, dancing, and diction lessons. Her thoughts on this: “If it took nine months for a baby to be born, I figured my ‘birth’ from Esther Williams the swimmer to Esther Williams the movie actress would not be much different.”
4. Esther Williams was not nominated for any Oscars® or Golden Globes®. She did receive the Golden Globe® for World’s Favorite Actress in 1952.
5. Esther Williams’ movie career played a major role in the promotion of competitive and synchronized swimming. It became an Olympic sport at the 1984 Olympics.
6. One tough lady. (1) Esther Williams broke her neck filming a 50 foot dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for 1952’s Million Dollar Mermaid and was in a body cast for seven months. Other swimming issues: (2) Her plaid flannel swimsuit in 1945’sThrill of a Romance was so heavy that she was dragged to the bottom of the pool, and had to unzip the suit, swimming naked to the edge of the pool to avoid drowning. (3) In another movie she nearly drowned after not being able to find the trap door in the ceiling of a tank. The walls and ceiling were painted black and the trap door blended in. Williams was pulled out only because a member of the crew realized the door was not opening. (4) Her many hours spent submerged in a studio tank resulted in ruptured eardrums numerous times.
7. Esther Williams nickname was America’s Mermaid. Her MGM nickname was Million Dollar Mermaid…probably due to the massive success her movies achieved.
8. Esther Williams was married four times….and had 3 children.
9. Esther Williams’ cumulative box office totals: Adjusted domestic box office: $3.41 billion. Adjusted worldwide box office: $5.38 billion.
10. Check out Esther Williams‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
10A. For Laurent. Some France box office information: 1944’s Bathing Beauty was one of the most popular movies of 1946 in France with admissions of 5,438,665.
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
1 From becoming a star in 1944 until 1955 Esther appeared in 20 MGM movies 16 of which could be regarded as normal ‘Esther Williams’ flicks.
2 Of those 16 only the final one Jupiter’s Darling (1955) ever lost money for MGM and overall worldwide rentals amounted to slightly under two and one fifth times total production costs. The Cogerson table shows that the total Worldwide Inflation Adjusted Gross for the 16 was almost a whopping 4.3 billion.
BOB
Hey Bob. Her stout box office numbers really surprised me. Of all of these pages that I have written only a handful I surprised me. So joins Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin and Tyrone Power in that group of people.
Esther and swimming pools meant some serious money to MGM. I wrote this page a couple of weeks ago…and I still have not been able to track down any of her movies…so my tally count is stuck at one.
Her average worldwide box office was a healthy $268.00 million per movie….I think everybody would be glad to have those numbers. Thanks for the deeper look into her box office numbers.
Hi
I suppose today’s generation would probably find William’s popularity quite puzzling. Would even her type of movies be still made today? I doubt it. But at her peak there was no doubt she was incredibly successful. You’ve got to hand it to MGM, they knew how to put on a show. Them production numbers with her in the pool were incredible. She was actually an attractive looking girl and an okay actress. Apparently when she was making Take Me Out To The Ball Game, Sinatra and Kelly was awful to her, As her film career faded, she still did T.V specials and sponsorship of swimming gear. She died a very rich woman. Her autobiography in 1999 is quite racy.
I think she was a star of her time and why probably most people wouldn’t be interested in her today.
Hey Chris
1. Thanks for checking out our Esther Williams page.
2. Yep…I am sure if I tried to get my older kids to watch one of her movies…they would think I was losing my mind..lol.
3. After writing this page….I now want to see some of those scenes…..as the only one of her movies that I have seen is Take Me Out To The Ballgame….which has no major swimming scenes.
4. Some of her photos….are stunning.
5. I had not heard that Kelly and Sinatra were not nice to her…..seems Kelly did that with some of the actresses he worked with.
6. I agree…..only film buffs might be interested in this page…..but the stats are very impressive.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on her career.
I’ve seen all her movies except for Magic Fountain which I’ve never heard of. In the mid 1950’s with box office receipts declining, MGM purged some of their stars. Esther was one along with Clark Gable, Ann Miller and Marga and Gower Champion. Robert Taylor who was still hot at the time lasted till 59 (25 years at the studio) and Gene Kelly made it through 57 with Les Girls. Universal had a similar purge in 1946 dropping all B movie production, B westerns and serials when they became Universal-International. They were going to try all A pictures. Only Abbott and Costello and Deanna Durbin survived the purge. MGM had a couple of actors signed to lifetime contracts but usually they were character actors. One was Frank Morgan (the wizard in the “Wizard of Oz” and maybe another was Lewis Stone (Andy Hardy’s father). Morgan died in 59.
Now no one is affiliated too long with any studio unless you are in a franchise series (Marvel Universe for an example). Clint Eastwood is the exception to the rule having been associated with Warner Brothers since the late 60’s and still directing at 86 (amazing) with Sully coming out in September, of course through Warner Brothers.
Hey Dan….glad you found and liked your requested page. Tally count: Tally count…..Dan 23 BERN1960 11, Steve 9, Hunsecker 2 and me 1. Magic Fountain was her last movie…and I found one source saying it got a very small release in North America…and another one that said it never got released in North America…in the end…I gave it credit for the least amount of box office possible….so in a nutshell…I do not think you are misses much.
The success of Esther Williams’ box office was very surprising to me. I think she even outperformed Gable at MGM. I imagine during that purging…she was considered untouchable by the MGM braintrust. Those contract days are long gone. You are right that Marvel and Clint are the last ones standing…..though Tom Cruise was with Paramount for a very long time. Thanks for the comment.
Looking at the list of movies, the only one that I have seen is A Guy Named Joe. I like that movie but not sure if I really remember her part. Still another winner. I guess swimming was very popular in her peak.
Hey Stein….A Guy Named Joe is high on my list of movies to see….I have seen Always many many times. In that one the girl from CSI. Marg H. falls in love with the new Joe….maybe that was Esther’s role in that one. Thanks for stopping by.
1 Esther was included in the Quigley survey of the Top 25 most popular movie stars 8 times including 3 consecutive appearances in the Top 10 from 1949-1951 inclusive. As the table above illustrates she was undisputedly one star whose box office performance justified her Quigley listings.
2 She was therefore a most important star in Hollywood’s Golden Era and accordingly in my perception this page with its domestic AND worldwide grosses is a very valuable document.
3 The 4 films The Unguarded Moment, Raw Wind in Eden, The Big Show and Magic Fountain come under the heading of Rarities in my book as they were made outside Esther’s Top Star years 1944-1953 and all were commercial failures so that box office information about them is exceedingly difficult to track down. Her musical/swimming film career behind her The Unguarded Moment was the first of Esther’s failed attempts to reinvent herself by going dramatic.
4 George Nader Esther’s co-star in The Unguarded Moment was a great friend of Rock Hudson and although he was not as important a star as Rock the latter apparently regarded him as a kind of guru because of his reputed calming and inspiring personality. Accordingly when Rock died having no family of his own he left his entire estate to George Nader.
5 As Bruce has indicated the 1952 film Million Dollar Mermaid was almost a ‘signature’ title for an Esther Williams movie. Over here in GB the film was actually called The One Piece Bathing Suit and I vividly remember it arriving in Belfast that summer.
6 I liked the nice personal touch on this page whereby information about the French box office was provided specially for Laurent.
BOB
kind of guru
Hey Bob.
1. I was shocked when almost everyone of her movies would fall in the hit category. Not thinking anybody (in my database at least) has every had 17 $100 million hits in their first 19 movies. Elvis comes to mind as a possible but he only had 8 in his first 18 movies….maybe your girl Deanna…..she is 10 of her first 16. It would have to be somebody that was successful right at the gate….an interesting question that will keep my mind busy….lol.
2. Yes….I have no arguments with Quigley having Williams on the page.
3. Her last 4 made almost nothing….especially Magic Fountain….I am not even 100% sure it even opened in the United States….in the end…I gave it credit for the lowest possible box office…just so it would be included.
4. As Steve’s comment…said….in the water she was a star…out of the water she was not.
5. Interesting information on George Nadar….I had not heard that before….sad somebody like Hudson did not have any family members to leave things to.
6. I can imagine her movies causing a stir with you young pups from Belfast….she is stunning in many of her photos.
7. Yeah when I saw that France box office stat….I was like…I gotta include that for him. Though I am sure he already knew it.
On vacation yet? If so…hope you enjoy Italy.