Understanding Film Industry and Audience Dynamics Through Imagined Affordances, Social Network Markets and Value Creation

Imaginations of cultural phenomena, technologies, and their affordances shape their use and evolution, as evidenced across various media and cultural fields. We explore how film experiences are shaped by the imaginations and communications of film professionals (FIPs) and film audiences (FAs) within networks. By integrating the concepts of social network markets, imagined affordances, and value creation into a novel theoretical framework, we provide a multidimensional perspective on the interrelationships between key agents in the film value network. Empirically, we apply this framework to the Estonian film industry – a small, publicly subsidized, and highly engaged market in Europe. We draw on 25 interviews with FIPs (including producers, distributors, and cinema executives) and five focus group discussions with FAs. The findings reveal how FIPs' imagined affordances influence production, funding, and marketing activities, while audiences construct theirs through paratexts and social network interactions. Audience feedback further inform professionals' practices, illustrating the cyclicality of imagined affordances in shaping value creation. By underscoring the dynamic interplay between audience expectations, professional strategies, and communicative processes, we provide a holistic understanding of value creation in film markets. It highlights the importance of bridging audience and production studies, offering insights to smaller markets while remaining applicable to broader contexts.