Seven years ago Buzzfeed posted an inflation-adjusted chart that compared the earnings of James Bond films. Thunderball (’65) was the easy winner with a grand tally of $620 million.

But according to my current calculations with 2019 inflation factored in, Thunderball is the second highest grossing Bond after Skyfall (’12), the all-time king, with Goldfinger (’64) and Spectre (’15) coming in third and fourth.

I realize that math has never been HE’s strong suit, but Thunderball‘s original 1965 gross of $141.2 million translates into $1.13 billion in 2019 dollars. The inflation multiplication factor between ’65 and ’19 is 8.052.

In 2012 Skyfall earned $1.109 billion worldwide. Apply an inflation rate of 1.113 (the difference between 2012 and 2019), and Skyfall‘s 2019 tally is $1,234,317,000.

Spectre earned $880 million in 2015, but in 2019 dollars that translates into $941,468,300.

Goldfinger earned $125 million worldwide in 1964, but in 2019 dollars that comes out to $1.034 billion.

Once again, in this order….

Skyfall / $1.109 billion in 2012, $1,234,317,000 in 2019,
Thunderball / $141.2 million in ’65, $1.13 billion in 2019.
Goldfinger / $125 million in ’64, $1.034 billion in 2019.
Spectre / $880 million in ’15, $941,468,300 in 2019.

Will No Time To Die beat Skyfall? Can it it beat Thunderball or Goldfinger? Or Spectre?

By the way: the 2019 earnings of Dr. No, which made $59.5 million in 1962, comes to $505,155,000 if you apply an inflation factor of 8.49.