box office

Information about box office



Enlarge picture
Jazz Festival box office, Edmonton, Canada
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 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

External links

A ticket is a voucher to indicate that one has paid for admission to an event or establishment such as a theatre, movie theater, amusement park, zoo, museum, concert, or other attraction, or permission to travel on a vehicle such as an airliner, train, bus, or boat, typically
..... Click the link for more information.
Admission may refer to several things:

In general usage:
  • Confession, generally.
  • Ticket to enter an event or movie theater
  • University and college admissions
  • Changes in status allowing an entity to become part of a group, see List of U.S.

..... Click the link for more information.
The word venue derives from the Latin for to come, and implies a place that people come to. The word may refer to:
  • A venue as the location for an event.

..... Click the link for more information.
Countertop (also counter top, countertopping, or (British English) worktop) usually refers to a horizontal worksurface in kitchens, other food preparation areas, and workrooms in general. It is frequently installed above and supported by cabinets.
..... Click the link for more information.
A wicket is the place where a customer performs a transaction with a Customer service representative.
..... Click the link for more information.
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and
..... Click the link for more information.
Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects.
..... Click the link for more information.
Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) (from French "théâtre", from Greek "theatron", θέατρον, meaning "place of seeing") is the branch of the performing arts defined as simply as what "occurs when one or more
..... Click the link for more information.
Revenue is a business term for the amount of money that a company receives from its activities in a given period, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers.
..... Click the link for more information.
A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN.
..... Click the link for more information.
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic way. Brandon Gray started the site in August 1998 and claims to now receive over one million monthly visitors.
..... Click the link for more information.
The following is a non-definitive list of the all-time highest-grossing films.

Highest Grossing Films

The list is based on the total box office receipts, updated on October 7, 2007.
..... Click the link for more information.
A film distributor is an independent company, a subsidiary company or occasionally an individual, which acts as the final agent between a film production company or some intermediary agent, and a film exhibitor, to the end of securing placement of the producer's film on the
..... Click the link for more information.
movie theater (North America), also known as a cinema (Australia, United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as North America), a movie house, or the pictures, is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ("movies" or "films").
..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.
You can assist by [ editing it] now. A how-to guide is available, as is general .
This article has been tagged since July 2007.
..... Click the link for more information.
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic way. Brandon Gray started the site in August 1998 and claims to now receive over one million monthly visitors.
..... Click the link for more information.
This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article.
..... Click the link for more information.
Box Office Bomb
(1989) Stuck in Wonderamaland
(1989)

Box Office Bomb is the second album released by alternative rock band, Dramarama.
..... Click the link for more information.
The following is a partial list of U.S. box office bombs; films with low box office revenue.

A film's financial success is often measured by its gross revenue. Ideally, studios want a film's "domestic" (which the American film industry defines as the United States and
..... Click the link for more information.
What is notable about this list is that not many films released before the mid-to-late 1990s are on it. This is mainly because movies used to have small (by today's standards) opening weekends yet would go on to become blockbusters, whereas today, filmgoers tend to want to see the film
..... Click the link for more information.
The following is a non-definitive list of the all-time highest-grossing films.

Highest Grossing Films

The list is based on the total box office receipts, updated on October 7, 2007.
..... Click the link for more information.
List of highest-grossing films throughout history (unadjusted)
Since Movie name Gross (at time of record)
1915 The Birth of a Nation (6 years) $9,183,673
1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (18 years) $10,000,000
1939 Gone with the Wind
..... Click the link for more information.
Rank Actor # Starring Films Movies Total # of Movies
1 Samuel L. Jackson 33 $3,365,689,942 64
2 Harrison Ford 27 $3,230,893,589 33
3 Tom Hanks 30 $3,082,736,594 32
4 Eddie Murphy 30 $2,916,855,608 30
5 Tom Cruise 24 $2,358,062,667 26
..... Click the link for more information.
Will call is an American term for a box office where patrons of entertainment venues go to pick up already-bought tickets for an event (such as a play or concert) just before the event.
..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.