A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to a venue. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall, or at a wicket. The term is often used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives. Box office business can be measured in terms of the number of people who see it or the amount of money raised by ticket sales (revenue). The projection and analysis of these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. Some complain that industry focus on profit has diminished the attention given to film as an art form. However, analysis of the financial success of films is very influential for the production and funding of future works. There are numerous websites that monitor box-office receipts and profits, such as ShowBIZ Data and Box Office Mojo. For a list of films which are major box-office hits, see List of highest grossing films. On average, the movie's distributor receives more than half of the revenue, with the remainder kept by the movie theater. The split varies from movie to movie, and the percentage for the distributor is generally higher in early weeks. Usually the distributor gets a percentage of the revenue after first deducting a "house allowance" or "house nut". It is also common that the distributor gets either a percentage of the gross revenue, or a higher percentage of the revenue after deducting the nut, whichever is larger. [1] [2].
Colloquialism
Box office is also used as a London slang term for a pretty woman—e.g. "She's box office." The term box office comes from Middle Ages, when patrons would pay into a box at a gate to get into the theatre, then pay again to get into better seats. Afterwards the payment boxes would be brought to the "Box Office" for counting and security.
See also
- ShowBIZ Data
- Box Office Mojo
- The Box Office Junkie
- Box Office Prophets
- Box office bomb
- List of U.S. box office bombs
- List of biggest opening weekends
- List of highest grossing films
- List of highest-grossing films throughout history
- List of top actors by total box office gross
- Will call
