box office

See also: box-office

English
A theatrical box office

Alternative forms

Etymology

1786,[1] presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”).[2][3] Sense of “total sales” from 1904.[1]

Folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience.[2][3] However, first attestation is over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbɒksˌɒfɪs/
  • (US) enPR: bäksʹä'fĭs, IPA(key): /ˈbɑksˌɑfɪs/

Noun

box office (countable and uncountable, plural box offices)

  1. (countable, film, theater) A place where tickets are sold in a theatre/theater or cinema.
  2. (uncountable, by extension, film) the total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters.

Synonyms

Derived terms
Derived terms
  • box-office receipts
  • box-office hit
  • box-office success

Translations

See also

References
  1. “box office” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
  2. William and Mary Morris, Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988
  3. Robert Hendrickson, Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Facts on File, New York, 1997
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