Here are the 12 top James Bond movies at the domestic box office, adjusted for inflation.
There have been 25 official James Bond movies starring 007 since the feature film franchise started with Dr. No in 1962. And as much as we love Dr. No, it isn’t on this list.
In fact, we can almost guarantee you that the top James Bond movie — adjusted by inflation — isn’t one of the ones you’re thinking of.
Here are the 13 top James Bond movies. Or Onatopp, for all you Goldeneye fans.
But First, Some Caveats and Clarifications
We’ve derived this list almost entirely from data compiled by Box Office Mojo, which adjusts for ticket price inflation by tracking the estimated number of tickets sold. Its list is adjusted by 2022 ticket prices, because 2022 is the most recent year for which this adjusted data is available. And we are looking at domestic, not international numbers.
If you go by “actuals” — meaning unadjusted dollars — the top James Bond movie is 2012’s terrific Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig as 007.
But we aren’t going by actuals. We’re going by adjusted domestic box office.
So here we go.
12 – The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The 19th Eon Produtions James Bond movie — and third to star Pierce Brosnan as our favorite super spy — gets its name from a translation of the motto on the Bond family coat of arms, which first appeared in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. We love a Bond movie with a sense of history.
It earned $126.9 million dollars, which is $232.9 million adjusted, and sold an estimated 24,853,800 tickets.
That means 24,853,800 men, women and children got to hear Brosnan deliver perhaps the silliest and dirtiest line ever to appear in a 007 movie. It’s a play on the name of Dr. Christmas Jones, played by Denise Richards:
“I thought Christmas only comes once a year.”
Moving right along…
11 – Casino Royale (2006)
We mentioned before that the Daniel Craig-led Skyfall is the highest-grossing James Bond movie in terms of dollars. But Casino Royale is the highest-grossing Bond film in terms of adjusted dollars.
Casino Royale is the 21st Bond film from Eon Productions, the third adaptation of Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name, and the first Bond movie with Craig in the lead.
It earned $167.4 million, which is $238.3 million adjusted, and sold an estimated 25,428,700 tickets.
Which means 25,428,700 men, women and children — but especially men — squirmed through that sweaty torture scene with Mads Mikkelsen, a rope, and a chair with the seat torn out.
10 – Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Sean Connery was lured back to the Bond franchise after George Lazenby replaced him as 007 in 1969’s well-regarded On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh film in Eon Productions’ James Bond series and the sixth and last Eon film to star Connery. (Of course, he also played Bond in 1983’s Never Say Never Again, which is not an Eon film and was adapted from an Ian Fleming novel that was also adapted into another movie on this list.)
Connery’s return paid well off, financially. Diamonds Are Forever, the first Bond movie of the ’70s, raked in $43.8 million, or $248.8 million adjusted, selling an estimated 26,557,300.
If the number $43.8 million seems a little overwhelming to modern ears — kind of like Dr. Evil saying “one millllllion dollars” — please bear in mind that 35 years passed between Diamonds Are Forever and the previous film in this ranking, Casino Royale, and inflation really took off in that period.
9 – From Russia With Love (1964)
The second Bond film from Eon Productions after the aforementioned Dr. No, and of course the second to star Sean Connery, From Russia With Love finds 007 assisting in the defection of oviet consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi, pictured with Connery) as SPECTRE plots to avenge the death of Dr. No.
It did even better at the box office than Dr. No, which was a big success despite many expectations that it would bomb. (Many close to the production expected a “low-budget flop” until images of Ursula Andress emerging from the sea changed their minds.)
But we digress. From Russia With Love earned $24.8 million in 1964 dollars, which adjusted for inflation comes to $249.8 million. It sold an estimated 26,663,200 seats.
8 – Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Hold on tight, we’re flying back to the ’90s.
Tomorrow Never Dies is the 18th James Bond film from Eon Productions, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the M16 agent and total rascal.
it earned $125.3 million in 1997 dollars, or $252.1 million adjusted, and sold 26,911,200 tickets.
Maybe Brosnan doesn’t come up as often as he should in the conversation about the best Bond.
A Quick Aside
Again, most of these numbers are from Box Office Mojo, and are domestic, not international.
You may be wondering: “Hey, James Bond is a globe-trotting British agent! Why are you idiots only going by domestic box office?”
This is a totally fair question. The answer is: Because Box Office Mojo only has apples-to-apples adjusted data for domestic box office.
Also, fun fact: Did you know Box Office Mojo is owned by Amazon, which also owns the James Bond franchise? It’s true! Amazon acquired total control over the Bond franchise last year.
Anyway, even though Amazon owns both Box Office Mojo and Bond, it’s records on Bond gross don’t seem to be completely complete. So like James Bond calling on his CIA friend Felix Leiter, we had to rope in the help of the U.S. government for the next film on this list.
7 – Spectre (2015)
Remember when we said earlier that almost all this data is from Box Office Mojo?
Here’s an exception. For whatever reason, Box Office Mojo doesn’t have adjusted numbers for SPECTRE.
The film made 201 million in U.S. domestic actual dollars at the box office, and since Box Office Mojo doesn’t have adjusted numbers, we used a handy Bureau of Labor Statistic inflation calculator to see what that would be in 2022 dollars. (Remember, we’re using 2022 dollars because that’s the most recent available calculation from Box Office Mojo.)
By our calculation, SPECTRE made about $258 million in 2022 dollars.
6 – Die Another Day (2002)
Pierce Brosnan played Bond for the fourth and last time in Die Another Day, which was also his highest-grossing Bond film.
He starred opposite Halle Berry as the unforgettable Jinx. Die Another Day is the 20th Bond film from Eon Productions.
The film earned $160.9 million in 2002 dollars — $258.5 adjusted — which reflects the sale of an estimated 27,584,000 seats.
You may be wondering, wait, where’s Roger Moore on this list? And the answer is coming right up.
5 – Moonraker (1979)
One of the silliest Bond movies is also one of the most successful.
The eleventh James Bond film from Eon Productions — and the fourth to star Roger Moore as 007 — went for broke by rocketing the M16 agent into space.
The filmmakers wanted to capitalize on the success of 1977’s Star Wars, and it worked.
Moonraker raked in $70.3 million, or $262.5 million adjusted, thanks to estimated ticket sales of 28,011,200.
4 – You Only Live Twice (1967)
And now, we enter the prime Bond era — in terms of seats sold, and, a resulted, adjusted domestic box office.
You Only Live Twice is the fifth Eon Productions James Bond film, and the fifth to star Sean Connery as the titular hero. It’s also the first Bond movie to largely dispense with the plot of the Ian Fleming novel that inspired it.
It made $43.1 million in actuals, or $336.4 million adjusted, and an estimated 35,904,000 paid to see Connery’s Bond flirt with Karin Dor’s Helga Brandt (pictured).
What uncomplicated times. And now, another complicted entry:
3 — Skyfall (2012)
Here’s the other situation where we had to call in the feds. Box Office Mojo doesn’t have adjusted numbers for Skyfall, so we again did our own numbers crunching with the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
Skyfall made $304,360,277 in U.S. domestic actual dollars at the box office, which according to our calculations is about $390 million, in 2022 dollars.
And again, we’re doing 2022 dollars to keep things apples to apples.
2 — Goldfinger (1964)
For our money, this is the best James Bond movie, with the best Bond and one of the best cars. We’re surprised it isn’t No. 1 in terms of adjusted U.S. box office, but oh well.
The 1964 Bond film, the third from Eon Productions, earned $51.1 million in domestic box office, which is $621.2 million adjusted.
That reflects sales of 66,300,000 tickets sold, and just as many mouths hanging agape when we saw what the nefarious Auric Goldfinger did to poor Jill Masterson (Shirley Jean Eaton, pictured with Connery) in one of the most notorious and creative of all movie deaths.
1 – Thunderball
We know: Thunderball? Thunderball made more money than Goldfinger or Skyfall or whatever else you were thinking would be at No. 1?
Yes, but again — and hopefully this is clear as diamonds if you’ve made it this far — we’re talking about adjusted dollars. And by adjusted dollars, Thunderball was an absolute smash.
it earned $63.6 million at the box office, which amounts to $700.9 in adjusted dollars — and reflects sales of 74,800,000 tickets.
Consider also that in the year of its release, 1965, the entire U.S. population was less than 200 million people. Which means that almost half the population bought a ticket to see the movie, or many, many people saw it more than once over the years, through its numerous re-releases.
Also, if you were wondering what movie is based on the same book as Never Say Never Again? It’s Thunderball.
About the International Numbers
We don’t think there’s a fair way to do apples-to-apples comparisons between old and new Bond movies, because the distribution of the 1960s bears so little resemblance to the distribution of today.
But we’re confident that Skyfall has made the most in actuals of any Bond movie, worldwide — Box Office Mojo puts its total at over $1.1 billion.
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Main image: Claudine Auger as Dominique “Domino” Derval in Thunderball. MGM
