Seven James Bond films rank in UK`s most attended films ever list

06-Dec-2004 • Bond News

Channel 4's "The Ultimate Film" counted down, for the first time ever, the most successful 100 films to show in UK cinemas since the dawn of film, based on actual bums on seats.

This really is the definitive movie chart for the UK, as films are ranked according to attendances, rather than box-office takings. The list was compiled by the British Film Institute.

James Bond films made seven appearences in the top 100 list:

#90 You Only Live Twice 1967
Estimated Admissions 8.3m
Stunning locations, impeccable action sequences, Sean Connery at his smoothest and a witty, fast-paced script by Roald Dahl combine to make this Bond instalment one of the more exceptional entries in the canon - and it marks the first appearance of the villainous Blofeld. Not only did the movie cost the then-astronomic sum of $9.5m, but an entire million dollars of this was spent on the crater set alone.

#80 Die Another Day 2002
Estimated Admissions 8.58m
Man in tuxedo blows up enemy lair, wins girl, makes bad jokes. No surprises in the 20th Bond then - apart from the fact that it's very entertaining. The movie set a new record for product placement, with $120 million worth of deals with various companies from Aston Martin and Jaguar to Revlon and Brioni.

#69 Live And Let Die 1973
Estimated Admissions 9m
Roger Moore's first outing as Bond. Drug smuggling, voodoo, a hook-handed henchman and Jane Seymour's tarot reader contribute to one of the series' most cartoonish episodes, which also features Bond's apartment for the (to date) last time. Among the secret agent's hi-tech gadgets is a coffee-making machine, the height of modernity in 1973.

#61 Moonraker 1979
Estimated Admissions 9.41m
James Bond jumps on the sci-fi bandwagon as he goes in search of a missing shuttle while avoiding being bitten by metal-mouthed thug, Jaws. With the exception of the title, the character Drax, and a couple other minor elements, this is an original story rather than an adaptation of Fleming's novel. Almost every scene is played for laughs, with Roger Moore camping it up as Britain's greatest secret agent.

#34 The Spy Who Loved Me 1977
Estimated Admissions 12.46m
Roger Moore hit his stride in this excellent Bond adventure, in which 007 falls for a sexy Russian spy (Barbara Bach) whilst trying to save the world from Curt Jurgens' evil plot to nuke the earth. The film features arguably the best Bond stunt (the ski chase in which James leaps off the side of a mountain), the best car (the white Lotus Esprit which turns into a submarine) and best villain (the metal-mouthed Jaws). Nobody does it better.

#27 Goldfinger 1964
Estimated Admissions 13.9m
James takes on nasty Auric Goldfinger, who has a dastardly plan to irradiate the US gold reserves with the help of Pussy Galore, in the best of the early Bond movies. There are some outstandingly nasty moments in the film: Bond gets a nasty laser beam trained on his trouser area, one of his girls is suffocated by being painted all over in gold paint. Refreshingly adult and deliciously violent compared to the comic book nastiness of most of its successors, Goldfinger is a thrill-a-minute, and stuffed with wit. In Oddjob, a mute servant who kills at the toss of a bowler hat, it also features one of Bond franchise's greatest henchmen.

#18 Thunderball 1966
Estimated Admissions 15.6m
The James Bond franchise went gadget mad in Sean Connery fourth outing as the MI6 agent. Nuclear weapons have been stolen in order that Spectre can hold the world to randsom and it's up to Bond save the day. The film is reputedly Connery's own personal favourite during his time as Bond, maybe because the jetpack 007 uses at the beginning of Thunderball really worked and was not a stunt. Thunderball is also the only Bond film, so far, in which we see all of the 00 agents in one shot. They are all summonded to M's briefing, 007 enters the room last and sits in the seventh chair from the left.

Thanks to `overkill` for the alert.