Greta Garbo than $1 million at the box office, becoming one of the studio's biggest failures of the decade. Garbo's popularity had considerably dropped, and when her contract expired soon thereafter, she returned briefly to Sweden. On 3 May 1938, Garbo was among the many stars—including Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Luise Rainer, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Dolores del Río and others—dubbed to be "Box Office Poison" in an article published by Harry Brandt on behalf of the Independent Theatre Owners of America. After the box office failure of "Conquest", MGM decided a change of pace was needed to
Greta Garbo was mailed to her home address. She twice received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for "Anna Karenina", 1935, and "Camille", 1936. She won the National Board of Review Best Acting Award for "Camille", 1936, "Ninotchka", 1939, and "Two-Faced Woman", 1941. The Swedish royal medal, Litteris et Artibus, awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture, especially music, dramatic art or literature, was presented to Garbo in January 1937. In a 1950 "Daily Variety" opinion poll, Garbo was voted Best Actress of the Half Century, In 1957, she was awarded The George Eastman Award,