Box Office:
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket.
By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular, such as a film or theater show, receives. The term can also mean factors which influence this amount, as in the phrases "good box office" and "bad box office".
Usage:
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. The projection and analysis of these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry.
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 website that monitor box-office receipts, 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 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 deducing 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 deducing the nut, whichever is larger.
Colloquialism:
The term box office likely refers to the office where "boxes", private seating areas, were sold at theaters and its usage derive back to the 1780s. Theaters today still have boxes, and some cinemas and theaters refer to the best seats as box seats.
The term also possibly originates from Shakespearean times, in which boxes would be used to collect a fee. However, due to thieves, the boxes would only contain a small amount of money, and the full boxes would be placed in an office, collectively called a "Box Office".
By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular, such as a film or theater show, receives. The term can also mean factors which influence this amount, as in the phrases "good box office" and "bad box office".
Usage:
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. The projection and analysis of these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry.
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 website that monitor box-office receipts, 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 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 deducing 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 deducing the nut, whichever is larger.
Colloquialism:
The term box office likely refers to the office where "boxes", private seating areas, were sold at theaters and its usage derive back to the 1780s. Theaters today still have boxes, and some cinemas and theaters refer to the best seats as box seats.The term also possibly originates from Shakespearean times, in which boxes would be used to collect a fee. However, due to thieves, the boxes would only contain a small amount of money, and the full boxes would be placed in an office, collectively called a "Box Office".