Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach shared an emotional moment with fans after his new movie, Iron Lung, managed to win big at the box office over the weekend.
The YouTube star took to a livestream in the wake of the theatrical premiere of his debut feature film to speak about its success and clear up any confusion about how it compared to competing films. He starts the 25-minute video crying as he speaks about the response he’s received so far.
“Man, it’s been a bit of an emotional day. I’m not gonna lie. It’s been a bit of an emotional day in a good way, in the best way possible,” Markiplier, fighting back tears, said during the Sunday broadcast. “Everything good. Everything’s fine. I don’t even know where to start. OK, so I’ll first say… man, just thank you, guys. Just thank you, guys, so much, because it’s been a really special day.”
What starts with Markiplier’s reaction to a positive review from fellow content creator Hbomberguy then turns into a moment reflecting on his mark on independent filmmaking. Iron Lung premiered alongside Sam Raimi and Disney’s R-rated Send Help, but both films spent the weekend neck-and-neck for the number one spot.
Although Send Help will continue its run while Iron Lung drops out of the box office race (and most theaters), the $21.5 million the film has made globally means it more than made up for its reported $3 million budget. It also means Markiplier is going to be able to “give the crew a big bonus.”
“I had a conversation today with a fan, and it was a perfectly normal conversation,” he said through tears. “They mentioned that they were a film student, and they said how cool it was that this was done independently, and that this was really kind of an inspiration for people that wanted to get into making movies, that it was even possible.”
When Markiplier told the film student that he had “some conversations going” about bringing a studio in to help with distribution, they replied, “please don’t because it’s really cool and kind of a hero moment to showcase that indie filmmaking was possible.” After going back home shortly after, he received an email stating that Send Help was “closing the gap” and only $300,000 away.
“I’m almost hesitant to ask this, but I think it might be a big win for independent filmmaking,” Markiplier added, calling on fans to see Iron Lung before it left local cinemas. “It’s not to shutout Sam Raimi. It’s kinda to shutout Disney for winning 10 weeks in a row – maybe they could only win nine weeks in a row and the one weekend that Iron Lung is here, it could, you know… I think that might be pretty cool.”
He continued: “And maybe if I could inspire someone to keep making films, that would be pretty cool. And maybe if it could open up the door for other people to do their projects independently, and know there could be success in it, I think that would be pretty cool. I think that might actually be really cool.”
Markiplier wrote, directed, self-financed, distributed, and starred in Iron Lung. It’s a live-action adaptation of the 2022 independent horror game of the same name and follows a man trapped inside an iron submarine in an ocean of blood. We gave it a 4/10 in our review.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
