007 movie ticket sales adjusted for inflation

Thunderball, the 007 box office champion adjusted for inflation

AFP-Relaxnews, a leisure news wire, this week recalculated worldwide ticket sales for the James Bond movie series by adjusting the figures for inflation. Here’s how the news service summarized its results:

Sean Connery, every movie buff’s favorite James Bond, is also the saga’s number one cash cow, based on international box office numbers.

Among the six actors who officially played Agent 007 on the silver screen, Sean Connery proved the most surefire box-office draw: each of his six James Bond films, from Dr. No (1962) to Diamonds Are Forever (1971), grossed $729 million on average (adjusting for inflation).

You can view the full list and story by CLICKING HERE.

Under the inflation-adjusted numbers compiled by AFP-Relaxnews, 1965’s Thunderball is the 007 box office champ at $1.04 billion, with 1964’s Goldfinger close behind at just under $936 million. To put this in perspective, Thunderball’s inflation-adjusted figure wouldn’t be as much as the 2012 film Marvel’s The Avengers at $1.45 billion but it’d be in that enviable neighborhood.

The highest non-Sean Connery film on the inflation-adjusted list? Roger Moore’s 007 debut, 1973’s Live And Let Die, at $847 million. (Live And Let Die was the first 007 film to top Thunderball in real life ticket sales.)

The lowest on the inflation-adjusted list is 1989’s Licence to Kill starring Timothy Dalton at just under $293 million. A View to a Kill, Moore’s 1985 finale as Bond, is next to last at just under $330 million. (Is the lesson here not to put “Kill” in the title?)

In real life, Daniel Craig’s 007 debut, 2006’s Casino Royale, is No. 1 at $596 million. That translates to $687.5 million adjusted for inflation and in the upper part of that list, ahead of the likes of Moonraker ($673 million), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ($665.7 million) and From Russia With Love ($599 million) while trailing The Spy Who Loved Me ($711 million) and You Only Live Twice ($778 million).

Connery’s six movies in the Eon series account for 33 percent of the inflation-adjusted series total while Roger Moore’s seven entries generated 30 percent, according to AFP-Relaxnews.

To see the non-adjusted box office list, CLICK HERE. AFP-Relaxnews says it used data from the U.S. Department of Labor in making its calculations to adjust for inflation.