Meanings
plural box offices · alternative box-office · alternative boxoffice
- broadlyuncountablebroadcastingThe total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters.
box office receipts
1 more example
If any further insurance was required, the popularity of the three "Topper" films in the 1930s — based on Thorne Smith's characters — would seem to indicate that amusing ghosts made good box office.
2005, Barry Day, Coward on Film: The Cinema of Noël Coward, page 88 - uncountableQuality of an entertainment or spectacle that makes it very popular with the public, or likely to be so.
A show that makes great box office.
1 more example
His performance last night was pure box office.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan taquilla
- taquillaticket office
Chinese Mandarin 票房, 售票處 /售票处
- 票房 (piàofáng)ticket office
- 售票處 /售票处 (shòupiàochù)ticket office
Finnish lippukassa, lippumyymälä
- lippukassaticket office
- lippumyymäläticket office
French billetterie, guichet
- billetterieticket office
- guichetticket office
German Schalter, Kasse
- Schalterticket office
- Kasseticket office
Greek ταμείο
- ταμείο (tameío)ticket office
Hungarian jegypénztár
- jegypénztárticket office
Icelandic miðasala
- miðasalaticket office
Italian biglietteria, botteghino
- biglietteriaticket office
- botteghinoticket office
Japanese 切符売場, 出札所
- 切符売場 (kippu uriba)ticket office
- 出札所 (shussatsujo)ticket office
Norwegian Bokmål billettkontor
- billettkontorticket office
Polish box office
- box officeticket office
Portuguese bilheteria
- bilheteriaticket office
Romanian casă de bilete
- casă de bileteticket office
Russian биле́тная ка́сса, ка́сса
- биле́тная ка́сса (bilétnaja kássa)ticket office
- ка́сса (kássa)ticket office
- бу́дка (búdka)ticket office
Spanish taquilla, boletería
- taquillaticket office
- boleteríaticket office
- taquillatotal amount of money
- taquillastotal amount of money
- taquillajetotal amount of money
Swedish biljettkassa
- biljettkassaticket office
Tagalog takilya
- takilyaticket office
Turkish gişe
- gişeticket office
Vietnamese phòng vé
- phòng véticket office
Cite this entry
box office. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20office
“box office.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20office. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “box office,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/box%20office.
Source: box office on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.