A bloody cool thing happened at the domestic box office in recent weeks as a low budget sci-film busted out in wide release with an $18 million opening, seemingly out of nowhere but not really if you’re one of the 38 million followers of YouTube royalty Markiplier (Mark Edward Fischbach). He wrote, directed, starred in and self-distributed Iron Lung, an adaptation of a 2022 video game by David Szymanski set in a submarine in a blood ocean on a desolate moon.
The film, which opened Jan. 30, has topped $34 million domestic (eyeing another $3 million-$3.5 million this weekend with 2,445 runs) and is at $8-$9 million worldwide at 3,180 theaters. The budget was $4 million with almost no marketing spend.
Markiplier tells Deadline that, as a YouTuber, this “needed to happen if I’m going to be able to elevate what I want to do and be taken seriously. No matter what, you have to make that crossing. And I did it in the best way that I thought I could, with a smaller, more contained idea.”
He worked on Iron Lung on weekends for three years, busy with his social media day job, an exclusive deal with Spotify for his popular podcasts Distractible and Go! My Favorite Sports Team, and retooling his lifestyle clothing label Cloak, where he is CEO. The brand, first launched in 2018, has featured a limited edition Minecraft Dungeons collaboration (with Microsoft and Mojang) for cloaks and hoodies, and Five Nights at Freddy’s wearable blankets and winter jackets.
Markiplier spoke with Deadline about his first feature, expanded horizons and close relationship with a generation of fans who were grassroots critical in nudging Iron Lung into thousands of theaters. They led a moviegoing audience that skews young, hails from rural areas and cities, and has stirred the ongoing conversation around the profitability and future of independent film.
The social media star, who studied biomedical engineering, also gleefully unveiled the math behind an ocean of synthetic blood — two pumps running for eight hours at 190 gallons per minute.
[The Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity.]
DEADLINE: Congratulations, this film is immensely profitable. A rare feat these days. What are some of the details?
MARKIPLIER: The budget was a little over $4 million. It’s self-distributed with Centurion Films booking the theaters. It’s mostly a 50-50 split of all domestic revenue. Internationally, I’m not sure because there are agreements, with sub-distribution. There’s a whole technical contractual side that I’m not sure of, but it’s not really a big stress for me.
I didn’t spend anything really on marketing. There was no video campaign. There was no buying ads. The only thing I think could even qualify is paying for theaters to have movie posters and then coordinating with Paper Airplane to get them assets and marketing materials. I just figured that’s helping out the theaters. Other than that, there was nothing really.
I’m very fortunate. I have a large fan base. It’s a fan base I built up from nothing, so I have a very personal relationship that I’ve grown over 14 years. So I know how they respond when I’m making things, because I’ve made bigger projects before. I’ve had cycles where I promote things to them directly. A benefit of YouTube is that if you build a community, you have access to this audience. But it’s not just a numbers thing, it is a relationship. That’s why I emphasize the long run that I’ve had — from nothing, to now. It’s important to emphasize because that is a relationship that you’ve built with some people since nearly the beginning.
DEADLINE: In fact, you have 38 million followers. Why do a theatrical film at all?
MARKIPLIER: I felt I needed a bridge from what I’ve been doing. Not that I believe it’s necessary. But, in other people’s minds, if you have a [YouTuber] stigma the only way they’re going to get over that is if you cross this kind of hypothetical gap that doesn’t really exist — but does in a way. So, it needed to happen if I’m going to be able to elevate what I want to do and be taken seriously. No matter what, you have to make that crossing. And I did it in the best way that I thought I could, with a smaller, more contained idea. I thought it could make a really good, contained story. And I learned a ton doing it.
Markiplier at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Iron Lung’ at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown
Natasha Campos/Getty Images for Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach
DEADLINE: What are your favorite genres?
MARKIPLIER: My previous projects have been on YouTube. I’ve done tons of different things. Different genres. But most have been comedy-based. There have been a few dramatic pieces here and there. I don’t really prefer one genre type, like coming from a game or not. Games are advantageous because I’ve built up relationships with gaming companies over the years and I have knowledge. But I gravitate toward them not because, like, wow, this is a great game, but wow, this is a great story. There’s really a universe in here. There’s something to dig into, to explore.
This is a horror movie. People are maybe familiar with the game, maybe not. I think it’s a good title, very strong. I think there’s curiosity when people hear it. And I kind of played into the stigma where people are like, “Oh, a YouTuber making a movie?” They have strong opinions about that one way or another. A lot of people are giving it a chance, even if they’re very jaded and thought there’s no way that this [film] could be any type of good. I think I surprised a ton of people. It’s about creating this kind of question in people’s minds — “What is it? What is it like?” People might be drawn in by the concept. They might like the name. When they hear the synopsis, they think, that could be cool. But not everything I make is going to be for everyone, even my own fans.
DEADLINE: Did you gravitate to the Iron Lung game right when came out in 2022, thinking this is the one?
MARKIPLIER: Yeah, it wasn’t too long after it came out that I reached out to the developer. It took three years to make because I had so many other things that I was doing. It was harder this past three years because it just so happened to coincide with a podcast deal that I got with Spotify, and a clothing company I’ve been rebuilding, in the background. Everything is kind of landing at the same time. If it’s just YouTube, I’ve got a good handle on that. I have a lot of editors, and the pipeline is very established. I had to make this movie on weekends.
DEADLINE: Clothing company?
MARKIPLIER: It’s called Cloak, it’s been around for about six years. I took it down to rebuild it because I wanted to take a more personal hand. And that’s taken some time. You’ve got to establish the pipeline all over again, hire personnel, and get things moving again. It takes a long time especially with all the trade problems. It was quite a headache.
DEADLINE: Your fans were key in driving the film to wide release, calling theaters. How did that work? I hear it’s sticking on 2,445 screens this weekend, its third.
MARKIPLIER: Yeah, It started out with three theaters and then it became about 60. And then as soon as tickets went on sale, it was just exponential growth. I put out a video saying it’s on sale, here are all the details, here’s the website. In the comments after the video, I wrote, by the way, I believe you can request movies. If a theater near you isn’t showing it, you can contact them and request a movie and if there’s enough interest, they’ll get it. And people took it from there. They kind of went for it.
When you have 38 million subscribers, you do have to be cautious sometimes of how you focus them towards something. They have taken down websites before. It can look like a bot attack but it’s not. Many websites have had problems with that and then I’ve racked up the bandwidth bill for some websites that are smaller operations, and that’s not something you want to do.
DEADLINE: Iron Lung is an inspiring story for independent filmmakers and independent film, which is so complicated to navigate and so hard to turn a profit.
MARKPLIER: Yes. That is a big, big thing for me. Obviously, since the movie came out there have been a ton of studios that have reached to talk about theatrical distribution. But that convinced me that I shouldn’t take those deals, because of what that represents. I am a firm believer that inspiration is the most valuable currency we have, and when the right inspiration comes along for people it can really drive them to do something incredible.
I started out studying biomedical engineering and I was in my final year before I quit to do YouTube. I had a health incident and sitting in the hospital, I had to do something. I felt a need to search out inspiration. And I found inspiration in some YouTube channels that were making some really cool things, visual effects-based things. And I didn’t even know people could do that, especially on their own, not as part of a movie or show. I just started where I could. And if I can inspire one film student, that’s incredible, if I can spark two that’s unbelievable. People should go out of their way to try to make sure that someone is inspired by the things that are getting made in the world because that inspiration carries a lifetime of progress in an art form. And you never know. Maybe what I do is not going to amount to anything, and no one’s going to become a director, but maybe there’s going to be one, and that’s worth everything.
DEADLINE: Next steps for Iron Lung?
MARKIPLIER: Run in theaters for as long as it will go and then get it up somewhere as soon as possible. I’ve already made the commitment to do this by myself without the attachment of any other companies or studios. I just kind of want to do it independently from start to finish, almost symbolically. I might have to buy a bunch of Blu-ray burners and start burning Blu-rays on my own and shipping them out, manually, start an online store. That kind of stuff is fun, [and] doesn’t scare me too much. I always liked to fall back on the thing where, at the end of the day, you can do it all yourself if you really want to.
DEADLINE: What else are you working on?
MARKIPLIER: Everything that I’d done before was an original idea. This is actually the first adaptation that I’ve made. And so I’ve done all my writing for everything for years and years, even the YouTube original shows that I did. But I don’t have a drawer full of scripts, that’s for sure, because writing is pain in the ass. I am not going to do that if I don’t have to. When it comes to the next thing, I already have ideas. I usually know what I want to do before I’m done with the previous project. And now I actually have options. Usually, I can only count on myself. There are other companies that I would like to reach out to. There are other things I would like to adapt, if they would be willing to share their ideas with me and trust me. But before I ask any of them, I wanted to prove I can make a thing and it can be a success and people can really find some joy in it.
DEADLINE: Can you share new project or timing?
MARKIPLIER: I wish I could. And that’s not even me being coy. I owe my wife a few dinners and vacations before jumping into the next project. One thing I know is that I don’t need to star in everything. That’s for sure. I just have for the past 14 years because who else is going to do it? And I’m a YouTuber, that’s what I do. But I’m more than happy to sit in the director’s chair and just do that. It is a lot of work to do both and I only did it because who else would I rely on to do it? For this next one, probably I’m going to be in a big cushy director’s chair and I’m going to sink into it.
DEADLINE: Last question, super curious about the massive quantities of fake blood in the film – was it really 80,000 gallons?
MARKIPLIER: How detailed do you want this answer?
DEADLINE: Really detailed.
MARKIPLIER: Then let me pull up my notes. I wrote this down in case someone actually wanted to know. The 80,000 gallons — and it’s an estimate, and on the lower side — the way I did the math is I based it on the flow rate of the pumps we were using during the shoot. You buy blood and the first batch of blood was on a semi truck. You get it from Blair Adhesives and we dilute it as we need it. It’s super thick when it comes in. So, the only way you can base what you’re “using” is if it’s being pumped into a set that is being filmed or if it’s being pumped during a shot. And I can quantify that because we have BTS [behind the scenes] footage showing each of these spaces being filled — how long it takes. We had two pumps, I believe they were Honda WH20s. They pump at 119 gallons per minute. But I’m not going to 100% of the flow rate because other factors can affect that. So, I figured 80%, and 80% of two of those pumps is 190 gallons per minute. I have BTS of each basin getting filled. I technically know the volumes but they were filled multiple times, filled and drained, filled and drained, and so I can calculate based on the time it took to fill each one, and how many times. I estimated that there were about eight total hours of those pumps running over the course of the week that we were filming all the blood stuff. There was obviously some blood before, but when it comes to quantity, it’s mostly from that last week of filming. Even then, I wanted to account on the safe side so even though I said eight hours, I went with seven. So, you do seven hours, which is 420 minutes, times 190 gallons per minute, which is 80% of the two flow rates, that’s 79,800 gallons of blood.
DEADLINE: Wow. Is that your biomedical engineering coming through?
MARKIPLIER: Technically, I guess. With blood and pumping. I worked on contrast injectors. So not the same, but kind of the same.