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Film & Television vocabulary · Distribution, Festivals and Awards

Box office

Meaning in film & television, with examples

/ˈbɒks ˌɒfɪs/nounCore term

In film & television, box office means: The money a film earns from cinema ticket sales, or its commercial success measured that way. Originally the place in a theatre where tickets are sold.

In Turkish: gişe, gişe hasılatı

How it is used

Common in trade news: a box-office hit, a box-office flop or bomb, box-office figures, top the box office, open at number one at the box office. Turkish media also report seyirci sayısı (admissions), not only revenue.

Example sentences

  1. The comedy topped the Turkish box office for four weeks in a row.

  2. Critics loved it, but it was a box-office disappointment.

Common collocations

  • box-office hit
  • box-office flop
  • top the box office
  • box-office figures
  • box-office success
  • blockbusterA very popular film that earns a lot of money, or a big-budget film made and marketed to become one.
  • releaseTo make a film or series available to the public in cinemas, on TV or on streaming platforms. As a noun, a release is a film being shown or the act of showing it.
  • distributorA company that buys the rights to show a film in a country or region and handles its release, marketing and delivery to cinemas or platforms.
  • premiereThe first public showing of a film, play or TV series, often a special event with the cast and crew.

More terms: Distribution, Festivals and Awards

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