Etymology
The term is attested since 1786, presumably from sales of box seats or "boxes" (private seating areas). The sense of “total sales” is attested from 1904.
A folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience; compare the "bottle" in Punch and Judy, where money was collected in a bottle. However, first attestation is over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642, the term is recorded 1786, 144 years later), making this highly unlikely.
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