The box office is where all the tickets are purchased. It’s also referred to as the box office, ticket window, or general meeting room for theatrical shows and trade shows. In some cases, it’s open on days when major events are scheduled. Some theatres have separate box offices that accept and sell tickets to Broadway shows.
The box office serves all of the different theaters throughout the United States. Each theater has a set, or “zone” that differentiates the prices for tickets by the specific show in that theater. These price differences are usually printed on the back of a ticket, along with the name of the show, cast, or director. This way, even from the largest theater in the country, each town is unique with its own box office.
Box Office workers make sure that everyone who buys tickets gets the proper ticket. They check ID’s, they scan tickets to make sure they are not stolen, and they collect payment on the spot. They often work on the floor around the ticket sales area. They are always on the lookout for customers, helping them select seats, scanning tickets for a transaction, and making sure everything goes smoothly. They are heavily relied upon by the film industry to make sure the show runs smoothly by making sure no one buys fake tickets. They also keep the lines moving.
In the early years of the film industry, the box office was established primarily as a cash cow. Film companies would bring in tourists, give them cash, and sell them tickets from the front lines of the movie houses. However, today, the film industry has evolved into a much larger business. There are multiple production companies, multiple studios, multiple films being made, and a variety of things that must be organized in order for the box office to stay afloat.
As the profitability of movies improved, the box office data was more accurately calculated and more accurate. This allowed a businessperson to properly target their campaigns. Film after film was made, with different casts and different directors, all with different ideas about how to market their films and increase their profits. This variety started to become more organized and a profit was calculated based on the grossing of each film by each company. It was discovered that when there were a wide variety of people making movies, the box office data accurately reflected the profitability of the business.
Edi, or Electronic Data Interchange, is a new way to collect and publish box office data. Using an EDI system, box office data is standardized across multiple studios, companies, etc. and can easily be pulled and analyzed for a particular film. An EDI system pulls the film data and calculates the number of screens, the average ticket price, the opening date and time, and the grosses from each of the screens.