October 2022 has been a great month for the James Bond franchise. It has been one year since Daniel Craig’s final outing as 007, No Time to Die, was released in theaters. Prime Video recently put all Bond movies available to stream on their platform following their purchase of MGM, and the film franchise is celebrating its 60th anniversary. While there has been no news on the next actor to play James Bond, there is still plenty to celebrate.

Whoever steps into the role of James Bond next will have some big shoes to fill, as some of the most well-regarded actors who played the spy with a license to kill have all left a mark on the character. In a series that has spanned 60 years with six different actors playing James Bond, everyone has their favorite. The series has also certainly had its up and downs with critics and at the box office, meaning whoever takes on James Bond next will certainly have a lot of competition from his predecessors as well as a chance to make a name for themselves in the franchise’s history.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

With 25 films in the series and multiple James Bond actors, these are the highest-grossing Bond movies from each of the actors that played James Bond based on worldwide gross adjusted for inflation. David Niven won’t be included for the more satirical, non-canon version of Casino Royale.

Sean Connery - Thunderball

     United Artists

When it comes to James Bond, Sean Connery has cast a large shadow over every subsequent version of the character. His James Bond entries launch the film franchise and laid the groundwork for the series, and created so much goodwill that helped keep the franchise in the audience’s good graces even years after he left. Of the six times Connery played Bond in the official Eon productions, the highest-grossing entry was in 1965’s Thunderball.

Riding high off the success of Goldfinger, Thunderball is the fourth Bond film and saw him go up against the villainous organization SPECTRE and his arch-enemy Blofeld. Adjusted for inflation, Thunderball grossed $1.04 billion dollars, which would make it the second highest-grossing Bond movie ever.

George Lazenby - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

George Lazenby only appeared in one James Bond movie, 1971’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service so that naturally makes it his highest-grossing Bond movie. On Her Majesty Secret Service grossed $64 million at the time of its release, which unadjusted for inflation makes it the second lowest-grossing film in the franchise above only the first film Dr. No. Adjusted for inflation, the box office ranks about $291 million, which while respectable was clear audiences were not taking to this new direction for Bond.

However, the movie has grown in estimation among fans and critics and is now regarded as one of the best. Lazenby served as the buffer Bond, not only allowing Connery to return one more time but likely opening audiences up to the idea of Roger Moore taking over a few years later.

Roger Moore - Live and Let Die

Live and Let Die marked the first time Roger Moore appeared as James Bond. While unadjusted for inflation the winner would be 1979’s Moonraker, which pulled in $210 million against Live and Let Die’s $124 million worldwide, adjusted for inflation Live and Let Die grossed $825 million, just beating out Moonraker’s adjusted $655 million. It showed that audiences were curious to see how a new actor would fare as James Bond, and after Lazenby’s one-and-done approach and one more appearance by Connery, audiences seemed more open to the idea.

Timothy Dalton - The Living Daylights

     MGM / UA Entertainment Co.

The underrated Timothy Dalton only got to appear in two 007 films, and like Roger Moore, it is his debut film as Bond which is his highest-grossing entry. 1987’s The Living Daylights grossed $381 million adjusted for inflation worldwide, making it the third lowest grossing entry in the series just beating out Roger Moore’s final Bond film, 1985’s A View To A Kill, and Dalton’s next entry, 1989’s License to Kill.

This unfortunately makes Dalton the lowest-grossing Bond star with more than one film, but the three films in a row showed that the James Bond series was truly struggling in the 1980s. The franchise was in desperate need of a reinvention and a hiatus, which it got when Brosnan took on the role in 1995’s GoldenEye.

Pierce Brosnan - Die Another Day

     20th Century FoxMGM

It is shocking to see that Pierce Brosnan’s highest-grossing James Bond film is not GoldenEye, but in fact, it’s actually Die Another Day, which is considered to be a vastly inferior film. Despite being the film that killed the original Bond continuity and forced the filmmakers to relaunch the series just four years later, Die Another Day still made a lot of money, about $543 million adjusted for inflation.

Die Another Day is a good example of a film being a box office hit, yet the producers knew the cultural reaction was bad and if they did not adjust it would harm the franchise in the long term, so the filmmakers decided to reboot the Bond film series and take it in a gritter, more grounded affair with 2006’s Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig.

Daniel Craig - Skyfall

     Sony Pictures

Daniel Craig’s third outing as Bond, Skyfall felt like a miracle film. Debuting strong in 2006’s Casino Royale, the franchise’s direct follow-up Quantum of Solace was less warmly received. This negative reaction, combined with bankruptcy issues involving MGM, led the third Daniel Craig Bond movie to be delayed multiple times. The movie finally got a release date for 2012, which felt like cosmic fate as that meant the movie would arrive on the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movie franchise.

The marketing played into this, promoting it as Bond’s 50th anniversary which even included Daniel Craig appearing alongside Queen Elizabeth in a promotional ad for the Olympics which were held in England that year. 2012 was a year made for Bond, and it paid off. Skyfall grossed $304 million at the domestic box office, and became the first movie in the franchise to cross $1 billion worldwide unadjusted for inflation, with its adjusted inflation standing at $1.18 billion, making it the highest-grossing James Bond movie of all time.

Skyfall received some of the best reviews in the franchise’s history as well, and went on to win two Academy Awards including Best Original Song for Adele’s ‘Skyfall,’ which dominated the charts that year. Skyfall showed that even after 50 years, James Bond still had it in him, and audiences now look forward to what is next for the most iconic super spy.