Are Enjoyment and Appreciation Both Yardsticks of Popularity?

TLDR

The study aims to predict how aggregate audience appraisals relate to film budget, gross, and viewership measures based on enjoyment versus appreciation. It employs a broad-based model of media and audience values and recent insights into enjoyment versus appreciation. Data show that both enjoyment and appreciation positively predict aggregate selective exposure even after controlling for film budget, contradicting the view that appreciation is negatively linked to success, and suggest implications for audience morality and media production. Abstract.

Abstract

Abstract. The current study adopts a broad-based model of media and audience values as well as recent understandings of enjoyment versus appreciation to predict that aggregate audience appraisals should be related to film budget, gross, and measures of viewership differently depending on the type of appraisal elicited. Data suggest both enjoyment and appreciation are positively related to measures of aggregate selective exposure when controlling for film budget. This finding challenges a view that appreciation is negatively related to success. Discussion centers on implications for understanding potential functional aspects of audience appraisals and suggests future research on audience morality and media production.