Editing Box office (section)

==Box office reporting==
There are numerous websites that monitor box-office receipts, such as ''[[BoxOffice (magazine)|BoxOffice]]'', [[Box Office Mojo]], [[The Numbers (website)|The Numbers]], and [[ShowBIZ Data]]. These sites provide box office information for hundreds of movies. Data for older movies is often incomplete due to the way box office reporting evolved, especially in the U.S., and the availability of information prior to the introduction of the internet.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

===History===

====Rise of Hollywood====
''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' started reporting box office results by theatre on March 3, 1922, to give exhibitors around the country information on a film's performance on Broadway, which was often where first run showings of a film were held. In addition to New York City, they also endeavoured to include all of the key cities in the U.S. in future and initially also reported results for 10 other cities including Chicago and Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety66-1922-03#page/n46/mode/1up|title=Business on Broadway Figures For Exhibitors' Information|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=March 3, 1922|page=47|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

In 1929, the first issue of ''[[The Motion Picture Almanac]]'' was released and included a list of the top 104 grossing films for the past year.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturealm1929exhi|title=The Motion Picture Almanac 1929|last=Exhibitors Herald-World|date=1929|publisher=New York, The Quigley Publishing Company|others=Media History Digital Library}}</ref> In 1932, ''Variety'' published the studios' top-grossing films of the year and has maintained this tradition annually since.<ref name="Variety1932">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/stream/variety105-1932-01#page/n0/mode/1up|title=Six Best Money Stars|date=January 5, 1932|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|page=1|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> In 1937, ''[[BoxOffice (magazine)|BoxOffice]]'' magazine]began publishing box office reports.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2013/01/boxoffice-magazine-stops-publishing-film-reviews-128559/|title=''Boxoffice'' Magazine Stops Publishing Film Reviews|last1=Singer|first1=Matt|date=2013-01-17|website=IndieWire|language=en|access-date=2019-05-20|archive-date=2020-01-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102185500/https://www.indiewire.com/2013/01/boxoffice-magazine-stops-publishing-film-reviews-128559/|url-status=live}}</ref> Beginning in the 1930s, BoxOffice magazine published a Barometer issue in January, which reported the performance of movies for the year expressed as percentages.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/boxofficebaromet00boxo_4#page/n0/mode/1up|title=BoxOffice Barometer A Review of 1947 A Preview of 1948|access-date=April 23, 2018|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=May 2019}}

====Golden era of film====
In 1946, ''Variety'' started to publish a weekly National Box Office survey on page 3 indicating the performance of the week's hits and flops based on the box office results of 25 key U.S. cities.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety162-1946-04#page/n2/mode/1up|title=Lent and Weather Easing Some B.O.s But 'Trunk,' 'Adventure,' 'Utopia' 'Big'|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=April 3, 1946|page=3|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030810225548/http://www.simesite.net/muggs.asp?articleid=313|title=How Box Office Reporting Was Built|website=Simesite|url=http://www.simesite.net:80/muggs.asp?articleid=313|archive-date=August 10, 2003|date=June 19, 2003|last=Golden|first=Herb|access-date=July 5, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Later in 1946, ''Variety'' published a list of All-Time Top Grossers with a list of films that had achieved or gave promise of earning $4,000,000 or more in domestic (U.S. and Canada) [[#Distributor rentals|theatrical rental]]s.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety163-1946-09#page/n180/mode/1up|title=All-Time Top Grossers|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=September 25, 1946|page=5|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> This became a leading source of data for a film's performance.<ref name=finler>{{citation|last=Finler|first=Joel W.|date=April 2, 1992|title=The Hollywood Story|edition=Second|publisher=Mandarin|page=[https://archive.org/details/hollywoodstory00joel/page/483 483]|isbn=0-7493-0637-8|url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodstory00joel/page/483}}</ref> ''Variety'' would publish an updated all-time list annually for over 50 years, normally in their anniversary edition each January.<ref name=finler/><ref>{{cite magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991007042514/http://www.variety.com/numbers/video.asp|title=All-Time Top Film Rentals|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=1998|archive-date=October 7, 1999|url=http://www.variety.com:80/numbers/video.asp|access-date=July 5, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/1997/digital/features/rental-champs-rate-of-return-1116680329/|title=Rental Champs Rate of Return|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=December 15, 1997|access-date=March 11, 2018|archive-date=June 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607025242/https://variety.com/1997/digital/features/rental-champs-rate-of-return-1116680329/|url-status=live}}</ref> The anniversary edition would also normally contain the list of the top performing films of the year.

====Dawn of modern film industry====
In the late 1960s, ''Variety'' used an [[IBM 360]] computer to collate the grosses from their weekly reports of 22 to 24 U.S. cities from January 1, 1968. The data came from up to 800 theatres which represented around 5% of the U.S. cinema population at the time but around one-third of the total U.S. box office grosses. In 1969, ''Variety'' started to publish a list of the top 50 grossing films each week.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Computerized B.O. Chart Due|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=April 16, 1969|page=3}}</ref> ''[[The Love Bug]]'' was the number one on the first chart published for the week ending April 16, 1969.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=50 Top-Grossing Films|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=April 23, 1969|page=11}}</ref> The chart was discontinued in 1990.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=''Variety''{{'}}s Grosses Report|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|page=5|date=February 14, 1990}}</ref>

In 1974, Nat Fellman founded Exhibitor Relations Co., the first company set up to track box office grosses, which it collected from the studios.<ref name=open>{{cite book|first1=Dade|last1=Hayes|first2=Jonathan|last2=Bing|title=Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession|url=https://archive.org/details/openwidehowholly00haye|url-access=registration|publisher=Miramax Books|year=2004|isbn=1401352006|pages=[https://archive.org/details/openwidehowholly00haye/page/295 295]–7}}</ref> Two years later, Marcy Polier, an employee of the Mann theater chain, set up Centralized Grosses to collate U.S. daily box office data on a centralized basis from theaters rather than each theater chain collating their own numbers from other theater chains. The company later became National Gross Service then Entertainment Data, Inc. (EDI).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benson-Allott |first=Caetlin |title=Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to File Sharing |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=9780520954496 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jdIkDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 149]}}</ref>

Except for disclosures by the studios on very successful films, total domestic (U.S. and Canada) box office gross information for films was not readily available until National Gross Service started to collate this data around 1981. The collation of grosses led to wider reporting of domestic box office grosses for films. Arthur D. Murphy, a former [[U.S. Navy]] lieutenant at ''Variety'' was one of the first to organize and chart that information and report it in a meaningful form.<ref name=Murfexit>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031115050806/http://www.simesite.net/muggs.asp?articleid=311|url=http://www.simesite.net:80/muggs.asp?articleid=311|title=Art Murphy Exits|website=Simesite|last=Berkshire|first=Geoffrey|date=June 18, 2003|archive-date=November 15, 2003|access-date=July 5, 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the 1980s, Daily ''Variety'' started to publish a weekly chart of the domestic box office grosses of films collated from the studios as compared to the Top 50 chart in ''Variety'' which was based on a sample of theatre grosses from key markets.

Gradually the focus of a film's performance became its box office gross rather than the rentals that ''Variety'' continued to report annually. Prior to the tracking of these grosses, domestic or worldwide box office grosses is not available for many earlier films so the only domestic or worldwide data available is still often the rental figures.

Murphy started to publish ''Art Murphy's Box Office Register'' annually from 1984 detailing U.S. box office grosses.<ref name=Murfexit/>

In 1984, EDI started to report Canadian grosses as well and by 1985 was reporting data for 15,000 screens. In 1987, EDI set up a database of box office information which included data on certain films back to 1970. By 1991, all U.S. studios had agreed to share their complete data reports with EDI.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Number's Game|first=Andrew|last=Hindes|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=November 18, 1996|page=43}}</ref> By then box office results were publicized, with ''[[Entertainment Tonight]]'' segments on the weekend's top films, increasing public discussion of poorly performing films.<ref name="mcclintock20201023">{{Cite magazine |last=McClintock |first=Pamela |date=2020-10-23 |title=Skipping Theaters? Hollywood Studios Weigh Risks of PVOD |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/skipping-theaters-hollywood-studios-weigh-risks-of-pvod-4080618/ |magazine=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US |access-date=2023-05-13}}</ref> In 1990, EDI opened an office in the UK, moved into Germany in 1993 and Spain in 1995 reporting box office data for those markets.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Outfit keeps tabs on overseas pic sales|first=Andrew|last=Hindes|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=November 18, 1996|page=48}}</ref> EDI were acquired by [[Nielsen Holdings|ACNielsen Corporation]] in 1997 for $26 million and became Nielsen EDI.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/1997/biz/news/acnielsen-takes-edi-off-the-marquee-111791917/|title=ACNielsen takes EDI off the marquee|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|access-date=March 7, 2018|archive-date=March 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308042700/http://variety.com/1997/biz/news/acnielsen-takes-edi-off-the-marquee-111791917/|url-status=live}} December 18, 1997</ref>

By the 1990s, ''Daily Variety'' started to report studio's weekend estimates from Sundays on Monday mornings which led to other media reporting the data earlier.<ref name=open/> When ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' was launched in 1990 it started to publish the top 10 box office weekend lists from Exhibitor Relations and the company was also supplying box office data to companies such as the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', [[CNN]] and the [[Associated Press]].<ref name=open/>

In 1994, ''Variety'' published their first annual global box office chart showing the top 100 grossing films internationally for the prior year.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=January 3, 1994|page=1|last=Klady|first=Leonard|title=Top 100 pix take $8 bil globally|url=https://variety.com/1994/film/news/int-l-top-100-earn-8-bil-117102/|access-date=October 4, 2019|archive-date=July 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727104121/https://variety.com/1994/film/news/int-l-top-100-earn-8-bil-117102/|url-status=live}}</ref>

On August 7, 1998, Box Office Mojo was launched by Brandon Gray and in 1999 he started posting the Friday grosses sourced from Exhibitor Relations so that they were publicly available for free online on Saturdays<ref name=open/> and posted the Sunday estimates on Sundays.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/|title=Brandon Gray's Box Office Mojo|access-date=May 3, 2020|date=October 7, 1999|website=[[Box Office Mojo]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991008185322/http://www.boxofficemojo.com/|archive-date=October 8, 1999|url-status=dead}}</ref> In July 2008, Box Office Mojo was purchased by [[Amazon (company)|Amazon.com]] through its [[subsidiary]], [[IMDb]].<ref name=techflash>{{cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2008/12/Amazons_IMDb_movie_trivia_site_acquires_rival_Box_Office_Mojo36320174.html|title=Amazon's IMDb movie trivia site acquires rival Box Office Mojo|access-date=June 17, 2018|author=Eric Engleman|date=December 17, 2008|publisher=American City Business Journals|work=TechFlash|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701131740/https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2008/12/Amazons_IMDb_movie_trivia_site_acquires_rival_Box_Office_Mojo36320174.html|archive-date=July 1, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=variety>{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/2008/digital/markets-festivals/imdb-links-up-with-box-office-mojo-1117997423/|title=IMDB links up with Box Office Mojo|access-date=December 17, 2008|author=Ben Fritz|date=December 15, 2008|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|archive-date=December 19, 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219095923/http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117997423.html?categoryid=18&cs=1}}</ref>

====Modern film industry====
[[Rentrak]] started tracking box office data from point of sale in 2001 and started to rival EDI in providing the studios with data.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Dade|last1=Hayes|first2=Jonathan|last2=Bing|title=Open Wide: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession|url=https://archive.org/details/openwidehowholly00haye|url-access=registration|publisher=Miramax Books|year=2004|isbn=1401352006|pages=[https://archive.org/details/openwidehowholly00haye/page/288 288]–9}}</ref> In December 2009, Rentrak acquired Nielsen EDI for $15 million, and became the sole provider of worldwide box office ticket sales revenue and attendance information which is used by many of the websites noted above.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/portland-based_rentrak_posts_q.html|title=Portland-based Rentrak posts Q3 loss|last=Gunderson|first=Laura|date=February 8, 2010|work=[[The Oregonian]]|access-date=February 9, 2010|archive-date=February 12, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212065838/http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/portland-based_rentrak_posts_q.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/12/rentrak-buys-nielsen-edi-consolidating-box-office-reporting-business.html|title=Rentrak buys Nielsen EDI, consolidating box office reporting business|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=April 9, 2011|archive-date=March 18, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318084534/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2009/12/rentrak-buys-nielsen-edi-consolidating-box-office-reporting-business.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On October 23, 2019, Box Office Mojo unveiled a dramatic redesign resembling IMDb, and was rebranded as "Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro" with some of the content move to the subscription based IMDbPro.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thewrap.com/box-office-mojo-criticized-after-redesign-that-includes-a-paywall-for-some-data/|title=Box Office Mojo Criticized After Redesign That Includes a Paywall for Some Data|last=Fuster|first=Jeremy|date=October 24, 2019|website=TheWrap|language=en-US|access-date=October 24, 2019|archive-date=October 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024044131/https://www.thewrap.com/box-office-mojo-criticized-after-redesign-that-includes-a-paywall-for-some-data/|url-status=live}}</ref>

US box office reporting largely paused for the first time in 26 years in March 2020, as nearly all theaters nationwide were closed because of the [[COVID-19 pandemic|coronavirus pandemic]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/weekend-box-office-hit-zero-first-time-1285879|title=Reporter's Notebook: The Weekend When Box Office Hit Zero for the First Time|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=23 March 2020|language=en|access-date=2020-03-27|archive-date=2020-03-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325034246/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/weekend-box-office-hit-zero-first-time-1285879|url-status=live}}</ref> Only [[drive-in theater]]s, which are typically not included in box office reporting, remained open.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://movieweb.com/box-office-zero-coronavirus-covid-19/|title=Weekend Box Office Hits Zero for the First Time in 26 Years|date=2020-03-23|website=Movieweb|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-27|archive-date=2020-03-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325103213/https://movieweb.com/box-office-zero-coronavirus-covid-19/|url-status=live}}</ref>