Iron Lung: A Win for the Little Guys
In case you aren't aware, Mark is a YouTube giant who started his channel back in 2012. My brother and I have bonded over his content for a very long time, including his creative year-long project "Unus Annus" with friend and fellow YouTuber, Ethan Nestor.
Iron Lung is a submarine simulation horror game developed by David Szymanski in 2022. After playing it on his channel, Mark approached David about adapting the game into his first theatrical film.
Mark wrote, directed, edited, starred in, and produced the film.
I wanted to write about it for a few reasons. One is because it's a major dose of nostalgia to watch a creator evolve over the years and expand their reach. It is inspiring to see an artist start on a platform everyone can use to create content, and make their way to achieving what so many creators dream of - a full feature length film with a theatrical release.
I also wanted to acknowledge the blood (80,000 gallons worth, give or take), sweat, and tears needed to create and release a film at this scale as a "newcomer" to a cutthroat industry that rarely lets the little guys into the fold.
As someone who feels Markiplier's name is practically synonymous with YouTube and content creator fame, it's hard to see him as one of the "little guys". But the YouTube world still remains a separate ecosystem from Hollywood. Despite so much crossover of people with talent and a love of movies, the ones who "make it" in Hollywood generally need to come into it with the money and the reputation "worthy" of the industry.
In other words, it's really hard to not only make a film but see your film in theatres when you're a YouTuber. Regardless of your personal feelings towards the movie, it's an achievement for any and all "small" creators, YouTubers, and small budget filmmakers.
Mark decided to fund the project himself with a budget of 3 million. As of today, February 5th, the film has surpassed 26 million globally in the box office. That means it has made over 7x its budget.
That would be like "Send Help", the Sam Raimi film also climbing the charts, with a budget of 40 million making 280 million in less than a week. (It has made 32 million globally so far.)
Anyone who has gotten to know Mark through his YouTube career can probably relate to the "we made the right person famous" feeling I'm having right now. In a world where the wealthiest and most powerful continue to demonstrate how corrupt they are, I'm savouring the success of a genuinely good human being.
I'm also savouring the clear disruption this underdog's success has caused in the world of film, despite that not being Mark's original objective. He just wanted to make a movie. But in a deceptively political environment, a success like this challenges everything Hollywood likes to believe is true. It also inspires the artist in all of us who dreams of creating something that can be shared far and wide. It reminds us "little guys" that dreams are possible.
Making the film was a feat in of itself, but a theatrical release worldwide was also a daunting task. Markiplier currently has 38 million subscribers, and many of these used their voices to personally request the screening of Iron Lung in their local theatres. The leg work of fans worked, and the original goal of three theatres was left in the dust as Iron Lung was shown in over 4,000 theatres globally.
To quote Markiplier from his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, "There still is a stigma against YouTube. One of the reasons why I really wanted this to work — at least some degree of success; I didn’t expect this degree — is to help move that mountain. It’s not like I’m going to topple the mountain by myself. It has to be toppled and then toppled again, until it becomes normalized. Once it becomes normalized, then it can become boring, and it’s like, 'Of course a YouTuber can do this,' and there’s nothing to question about it."
The goal is for a success like this to become boring, normalized. This is just one step in toppling the mountain and boy, what a step it has been!
This will be Part 1 of 2, because I would like to nerd out about the Iron Lung lore in the second part. There are plenty of reviews out there that I don't feel my opinion needs to be added. It suffices to say I enjoyed the film and walked away feeling impressed. I'd be very proud if that was my first feature film.
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