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 Berling". Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She immediately stirred interest with her first silent film, "Torrent", released in 1926; a year later, her performance in "Flesh and the Devil", her third movie, made her an international star. Garbo's first talking film was "Anna Christie" (1930). MGM marketers enticed the public with the tagline "Garbo talks!" That same year she starred in "Romance". For her performances in these films she received the first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. (Academy rules at the