box office

== English == === Alternative forms === box-office boxoffice (less common) === Etymology === 1786, presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”). Sense of “total sales” from 1904. 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. However, the term is first attested over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely. === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbɒksˌɒfɪs/ (US) enPR: bäksʹä'fĭs, bäksʹô'fĭs, IPA(key): /ˈbɑksˌɑfɪs/, /ˈbɑksˌɔfɪs/ === Noun === box office (countable and uncountable, plural box offices) (countable, film, theater) A place where tickets are sold in a theatre/theater or cinema. (uncountable, by extension, film) The total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters. (uncountable) Quality of an entertainment or spectacle that makes it very popular with the public, or likely to be so. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ticket office, booking office ticket window (for train, bus) ==== Translations ==== === See also === cume will call === References === “Re: Box office, box seat”, The Phrase Finder, ESC, March 22, 2002 === Further reading === “box office”, in Collins English Dictionary. “box office”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present. “box office”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. “box office”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.