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.
Dear Sonja Henie devotees,
Do any of you please know which film it is in which there’s a comedy sequence on the ice involving the male minor characters during which one of them, skating, takes a tumble into a trough of water? I recall catching it once on television as a child in the UK in the early 60s. I can’t imagine for a moment the sequence would make me laugh as much now as it did then, but it would be wonderful to know the film’s title so I might to track it down and see. Many thanks if you’re able to help.
Hey David. Seems like it could be It’s A Pleasure. It was one of her few color movies.
Hey Taylor…thanks for the feedback to David…..looking at the date….I had not realized you had been commenting so long. Good stuff.
1 Sonja Henie’s feature film career was short lasting from just 1936 to 1948 and when I started watching movies in the early 1950s I never noticed any of her films being rerun in cinemas or on TV over here.
2 However just as I don’t necessarily have to be familiar with the movies in Steve Lensman’s videos to enjoy the artwork so it is that in themselves the box office grosses of prominent stars will always interest me so I welcome this page and conclude that an average adjusted domestic gross of some $148 million is impressive for such a short career.
3 I have often thought of Sonja as a sort of Esther Williams on ice as both of them built their careers around sports at which they excelled professionally and in some phots and in the cute little colour poster above she even looked like Deanna Durbin on ice. Anyway this page is a worthy addition to the Cogerson site.
Hi
Like most contributors, I’ve yet to see one of her movies. But going by her box office figures, she was more than a mere novelty act. By all accounts she was a very shrewd business woman. When Fox approached her in 1936, they wanted her for supporting roles but she demanded star billing. Her skating shows were very popular in America at the time, no doubt helping the promotion of her movies.
She was undoubtedly brilliant on ice but wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, certainly not mine. Interesting page nevertheless.
I used to think Sonya was cute, have seen all her pictures except for The Countess of Monte Cristo, even have a copy of Thin Ice somewhere in the house. Used to have It’s a Pleasure (in color yet) but got rid of it. Have seen a lot of Vera (Hruba) Ralston epics too like Lake Placid Serenade and her 3 John Wayne pictures. She was married to Herbert Yates, owner of Republic pictures. She looked better as a blonde (she was brunette too).
Sonya only worked with 2 Oscar winners but they had long careers.
Everything Happens at Night (1939) – Ray Milland
Happy Landing (1938) – Don Ameche
One in a Million (1936) – Don Ameche
There is no one on current Oracle of Bacon list who ever worked with her. Well it’s 69 years since her last flic. I remember we connected the top 10 Oracle people through 2 steps to Ray Milland but it’s 3 through him to her. Can any of them do it in 2?
Eric Roberts – No
Michael Madsen – No
Danny Trejo – No
Samuel L. Jackson was in Coming to America (1988) with Don Ameche
Harvey Keitel – No
Willem Dafoe – No
Robert De Niro was in Raging Bull (1980) with one Gil Perkins who is in Second Fiddle (1939) with Sonja.
Bob is in The Last Tycoon (1976) with Ray Milland
Malcolm McDowell is in Aces High (1976) with Ray Milland
Donald Sutherland is in Promise Her Anything (1966) with Bob Cummings who is in Everything Happens at Night (1939).
Michael Caine was in Gambit (1966) with one Paul Bradley who was in It’s a Pleasure (1945)
Michael was in The Last Valley (1971) with Arthur O’Connell (never liked him either) who was in The Countess of Monte Cristo (1948).
Robert De Niro connected through a couple of others to an uncredited appearance of Sonya in Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937).
I’m surprised none of the top 10 connected through either Cesar Romero or Buddy Ebsen who had long careers and appeared in films with her.
They don’t even seem to have the ice capades anymore in NYC
Cogerson
I have to own up that I have never seen a Sonja Henie movie. It is interesting to me as I am so ancient I have one foot in the grave and have been watching movies almost forever. I have seen clips in “Hollywood and the stars” type documentaries of her, I believe, but no movies. I have been looking for Sun Valley Serenade on sale because I want to see Glenn Miller and his orchestra. As for Sonja, what I think I know is that she was a great figure skater in her day who won gold medals in the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics.