box office
106
2.5
- noun
- /ˈbɑks ˈɔfɪs/
- Despite receiving generally negative reviews from critics, it was a box office success after earning $212.9 million, against its $80 million budget.
- box office revenue
- box office success
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeMotion pictures that were huge hits at the box office worldwide.
- Motion pictures that were huge hits at the box office worldwide.
- Let's show conservatives can dominate the box office and make opening weekend a huge success.
- And just think, if everyone in Congress would watch it, that would triple its box office.
- Who is when you are not only the greatest inside the ring, but you were just a box office hit because of who you are?
- It his previous film had had been, you know, just this huge disappointment in terms of box office returns.
- There aren't movie stars that can drive a box office like they used to be.
- The film role may not be a hit at the box office, but fuck that.
- The box office success when the Shawshank Redemption came out was dumb and Dumber.
Examples
-
I'm still the biggest box office draw there is.
-
A judgement reflected in its relatively poor showing at the box office.
-
For example, I need this film to be a box office success.
-
I mean, at least we'll win at the box office.
-
Every one of these movies was a box office hit, except for one.
-
Color's worth a million dollars at the box office.
-
Though the musical would fail at the box office, their collaboration received considerable attention.
Fiction book (1999) -
Role-playing was not a huge box office success.
-
It shot to the top of the box office and stayed there, becoming the biggest comedy in movie history.
-
The film grossed over $100 million at the box office in its opening weekend.
Synonyms
571
1.0
The money a company gets from selling goods or services
399
3.4
Money a business gets from sales before paying costs
5
5.7
The total money from ticket sales at an event
How Successful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The MWE meaning 'amount of money earned from ticket sales' is a metonymic extension (from the place where tickets are sold to the takings) and is not directly or compositionally derived from 'box' (a seating area) + 'office' (a room for work). A B1 learner who knows the constituent words is unlikely to predict this financial sense without prior exposure, so the expression functions idiomatically in this use.
Etymology
Box office also came to mean the money in that box, because counting the cash from ticket sales showed how well a show did. So it now means 'the money made from ticket sales'.