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• box office
  box office

  noun

  the office of a theater, stadium, or the like, at which tickets are sold.
• box-office
  box-office

  adjective

  of or relating to the box office or to the business and commercial aspects of the theater.

box office

¹ American  

noun

• box offices
  plural

1. the office of a theater, stadium, or the like, at which tickets are sold.

2. Theater.

   1. receipts from a play or other entertainment.

   2. entertainment popular enough to attract paying audiences and make a profit.

      This show will be good box office.

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box-office ² American  

[boks-aw-fis, -of-is] / ˈbɒksˌɔ fɪs, -ˌɒf ɪs /

adjective

1. of or relating to the box office or to the business and commercial aspects of the theater.

   a box-office window; box-office receipts; a box-office attraction.

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box office British  

noun

1. an office at a theatre, cinema, etc, where tickets are sold

2. the receipts from a play, film, etc

3. 1. the public appeal of an actor or production

      the musical was bad box office

   2. ( as modifier )

      a box-office success

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box office Idioms  

1. The office where seats for a play, concert, or other form of entertainment may be purchased, as in Tickets are available at the box office . It is so called because originally (17th century) it was the place for hiring a box, a special compartment of theater seats set aside for ladies. [Second half of 1700s]

2. The financial receipts from a performance; also, a show's relative success in attracting a paying audience. For example, You may not consider it great art, but this play is good box office . [c. 1900]

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• box offices
  plural

Etymology

Origin of box office¹

First recorded in 1780–90

Origin of box-office²

First recorded in 1805–15; adj. use of box office

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

box office box-office

“Toy Story 5” box office performance and theme park revenue growth propelled Disney shares 3.6%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

While the company praised the box office performance of "Toy Story 5" and "The Devil Wears Prada 2," it saw "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu" underperform.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Laboe points out Curry Barker’s box office underdog “Obsession” as the latest example of a major low-budget indie success.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

“Brand New Day” has now earned $407 million in the U.S. and Canada, with an additional $645.8 million in international box office receipts for a global total of $1.05 billion, according to studio estimates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

In that tiny fishbowl box office, my only connection to my coworkers in the lobby was a red phone.

From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

Disney revenues rose 7%, buoyed by the box-office performance of “Toy Story 5” and theme-park visitors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

An increase in theme-park revenue and the huge box-office performance of “Toy Story 5” drove a jump in quarterly revenue for Disney DIS 0.04%increase; up pointing triangle , the company said Wednesday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

The combined power of “The Odyssey” and “Brand New Day” helped make this past weekend the biggest in domestic box-office in history, with theaters bringing in an initially reported $430 million in ticket sales.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

Though their big-screen adventures could not capture the comedic chaos of their stage act, Martin and Lewis transformed even the most pedestrian screenplay into box-office gold.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026

This contemporary lithograph lampoons the panicked gentry who fled the city - and thus turned Handel’s new oratorio, Theodora, into a box-office flop.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

Related Words

• gate