Market Research
Scenery operates at the convergence of three large, growing markets. None has been served by a platform that unifies them through the lens of cinematic culture.
Market Overview
The opportunity is to create a new category: the cinema knowledge graph that powers discovery-led commerce. Scenery operates at the convergence of film discovery, product commerce, music discovery, hospitality booking, and film-location tourism — five large, growing markets that have never been served by a single platform.
Film Discovery Market
2.1 Existing Landscape
IMDb is the dominant global film database with 200M+ monthly active users, but it offers no interactive exploration, no commerce, and no connection between film elements and purchasing. Letterboxd has captured the social/cultural film audience (12M users) but is review-focused with no product or music discovery. JustWatch aggregates streaming availability but does not explore film content.
The gap is profound: no platform exists that lets you explore what is inside a film and act on it. Scenery occupies this entirely uncontested space.
2.2 User Behaviour Signals
- "Where can I get Ryan Gosling's jacket from Drive?" — millions of Google searches annually for film-specific products
- Film soundtrack albums consistently chart on streaming services during film release cycles
- Costume and prop replicas from popular films represent a multi-billion dollar merchandise category
- "Shazam for movies" is a frequently requested feature on Reddit, Twitter, and film communities
- IMDb's most visited pages are actor filmographies and trivia — indicating appetite for deep film exploration
Film Merchandise Market
The global licensed entertainment merchandise market exceeded €320 billion in 2024, with film IP representing approximately 12–15% of that figure (€38–48 billion). This is dominated by franchises (Marvel, Star Wars, Disney), but a long tail of independent and cult film merchandise is served by informal channels.
- The Drive scorpion jacket has sold hundreds of thousands of units across retailers since the film's 2011 release
- Cult films (Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski) generate sustained merchandise revenue decades after release
- Indie film IP holders currently receive zero revenue from merchandise sold by third parties
- Scenery + CineCore creates the first structured IP licensing path for indie film merchandise
Music Discovery Market
Music discovery via film and television is one of the most powerful channels for artist discovery.
Competitive Analysis
| Platform | Category | Strength | What Scenery Adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| IMDb | Film database | Cast, metadata, trivia | No timeline, no commerce, no music |
| Letterboxd | Film social network | Reviews, lists, discovery | No products, no music, no commerce |
| JustWatch | Streaming aggregator | Where to watch | No exploration, no cultural layer |
| Mubi | Curated streaming | Cinephile content | No discovery of film elements |
| 1stDibs / Chairish | Design commerce | Film prop replicas | Not film-led, no scene context |
| Tunefind | Music in TV/film | Soundtrack discovery | No products, no timeline, no commerce |
| Viator / Airbnb Experiences | Tours & experiences | Broad experience marketplace | No film-led discovery; tours not linked to scenes or the Scene Graph |
Scenery is not competing with any of these platforms directly. It is building a new category. The closest analogy is what Shazam did for music recognition — it created an entirely new user behaviour (identify a song in real time) that had no category before it existed. Scenery creates the behaviour of exploring a film like a cultural map.
The Indie Film Ecosystem
6.1 Why Indie First?
6.2 European Indie Film Production
| Country | Annual Production | Co-Production Rate | Key Festivals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | ~80 feature films/year | ~60% | Ghent Film Festival, Liège |
| Netherlands | ~100 feature films/year | ~55% | IFFR Rotterdam |
| France | ~300 feature films/year | ~40% | Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand |
| Germany | ~250 feature films/year | ~50% | Berlinale |
| Nordics | ~200 feature films/year | ~45% | Göteborg, CPH:DOX |
Market Sizing (TAM / SAM / SOM)
| Market | Definition | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| TAM | Film discovery + merchandise + music referral + hospitality booking + real estate + film-location tourism globally across all major film industries | €250B+ |
| SAM | European film-associated commerce + discovery platforms (Phase 1–3 focus) | €4.2B |
| SOM | Phase 1–3 achievable: European indie catalogue + shop placement + all 8 revenue streams | €4M ARR at 36 months |
Global Expansion Markets
The Scene Graph model is culturally universal — every major film industry produces exactly the kind of richly tagged, commerce-ready content that Scenery is built to index. After establishing European market leadership, four high-priority international markets represent a combined opportunity that dwarfs the EU alone.
| Market | Box Office | Annual Production | Scenery Opportunity | Entry Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 United States | ~€9B (2024) | 700+ films/year | Largest licensed merch market globally; deep Hollywood back catalogue; massive English-language streaming base; high-ARPU consumers with established film commerce behaviour | Phase 4 — 2029 |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | ~€650M (2024) | ~200 films/year | Korean Wave (Hallyu) drives a global fanbase that already purchases scene-specific merchandise; iconic IP moments (Squid Game, Parasite); booming music affiliate market; Netflix-amplified global reach well beyond domestic | Phase 5 — 2030 |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | ~€2.1B (2024) | 600+ films/year | Deep merchandise culture (one of the world's highest per-capita merch spend); high-ARPU consumers; film location tourism already established as a domestic industry; strong OTT growth | Phase 5 — 2030 |
| 🇮🇳 India | ~€1.8B (2024) | 1,800+ films/year | World's largest film production volume; film music is culturally central (every film produces chart hits, making music affiliate the dominant stream); 1.4B+ population with a rapidly growing OTT middle class (Prime, Netflix India, Hotstar) | Phase 6 — 2031 |
8.1 Global ARR Projection (Post Series A)
| Region | Year 4 — 2029 | Year 5 — 2030 | Year 6 — 2031 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇪🇺 Europe (existing) | €6.5M | €9M | €12M |
| 🇺🇸🇬🇧 US + UK | €7.5M | €14M | €20M |
| 🇰🇷🇯🇵 Korea + Japan | — | €9M | €15M |
| 🇮🇳 India + SE Asia | — | — | €18M |
| TOTAL ARR | €14M | €32M | €65M |
These projections assume Series A funding (€5M–€8M) closes at end of 2028 to fund international localisation, catalogue expansion, and regional partnerships. The Scene Graph architecture does not require rebuilding per market — it scales by ingesting new film catalogues into the same data layer. The graph compounds with every market opened.