Horror film Iron Lung, based on the indie videogame by developer David Szymanski, hit movie theaters in February. It starred, was directed by, and maybe most interestingly, was distributed by YouTuber Markiplier working outside of the traditional Hollywood system. The movie was originally planned for release in only about 60 theaters in the US, but a fan campaign led to a premiere for Iron Lung in over 4,000 theaters worldwide.
While reviews are mixed, they do generally lean positive, and perhaps most importantly as far as Hollywood is concerned, the film grossed nearly $50 million—on a budget Markiplier has stated was “a little over” four million dollars.
Appearing on the Lemonade Stand podcast this week, Markiplier was asked if any production companies or movie studios had shown interest in producing or distributing Iron Lung based on his success with his YouTube projects, including In Space With Markiplier, for which he received an Emmy nomination.
“There might have been, but nothing really stands out, because even though it was a large project, it was still a YouTube project. There is that level of respect that I just haven’t met yet,” Markiplier said.
“No one was really bashing down my door to say, like, ‘We want to make your movie!'”
While it wasn’t specifically his goal to raise the reputation of YouTubers in Hollywood, Markiplier thinks Iron Lung’s big box office take might be having an effect.
“It was something that they were, I think, willfully ignoring. At least a lot of Hollywood was willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers here,” Markiplier said.
But since Iron Lung’s success, he has seen some indications of a change in attitude. “There is a bit of a shift here. I’ve had a couple of meetings with some studios, some executives, some key people in [film] world, and they’re all asking me the same thing: ‘How’d you do it? How’d you do it?'” he said.
“They see money, they can see the threat that’s there, they see that if people can make this independently, that means less of the pie is available,” he said. “And I think that’s good. They need some competition. They need a kick in the ass.”
As for his next film project, Markiplier says he is considering other videogame adaptations, though: “There is a trap there, right? If I only do game adaptations, then I become the games guy. And especially if I do horror game adaptations, I become that,” he said. “I feel like I could probably do another game adaptation next and that’d be fine. But if the next one isn’t an original idea, then I am hindering myself as an artist.”
You can watch the entire Lemonade Stand podcast with Markiplier on YouTube.
