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

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See also

References

  1. 1 2 “box office” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.
  2. 1 2 William and Mary Morris, Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988
  3. 1 2 Robert Hendrickson, Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Facts on File, New York, 1997
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