Photo Credit: Courtesy Gage Skidmore. YouTuber Markiplier speaks at Pax West on Aug. 31, 2018.
Mark Fischbach, commonly known as Markiplier, claimed the #1 spot at the domestic box office on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 with his debut indie film “Iron Lung.”
The film’s competition was a variety of recent Disney films, such as “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” American filmmaker Sam Raimi’s most recent thriller, “Send Help,” debuted the same weekend as “Iron Lung.”
In a tight race, Markiplier’s film surpassed Raimi’s in the box office on two separate days, and it even went on to get more theater admissions than “Send Help,” according to Deadline.
“Iron Lung” is the film adaptation of the indie horror video game of the same name, created by David Szymanski. It began production in early 2023 and released on January 30, 2026.
The film was entirely funded, written and directed by Fischbach, handled through his independent production company, Markiplier Studios.
The film takes place in a universe where all of the solar system’s planets have mysteriously disappeared, aside from a series of moons that contain oceans of human blood. The film’s protagonist, Simon —played by Fischbach— is a convict tasked with exploring one of these blood oceans inside of a submarine called the “Iron Lung.”
As a narrative, the film is entirely in the submarine itself. It was an intentional decision to have the audience feel like they are in the submarine with Simon, drawing on one of the core storytelling techniques that the movie utilizes: perspective.
“A lot of the perspective of the audience coincides with the the main character,” Fischbach said in an interview with IGN. “His perception of [the events in the film] is often in his head and unspoken, because then the audience can draw their own conclusions.”
Fischbach is widely known online as Markiplier, where he runs a gameplay commentary channel on YouTube with 38.3 million subscribers. The successful YouTuber and filmmaker became interested in the Iron Lung video game after posting a video of himself playing it to his YouTube channel in 2022.
“I reached out to [Szymanski] a little bit after playing the game asking if I could make a movie about it,” Fischbach said. “We worked in tandem together.”
Prior to “Iron Lung,” Fischbach had experience in acting and producing several different projects, such as “A Heist with Markiplier.” However, the indie film was his first full production as both writer and director.
On the Sunday of the film’s debut weekend, Fischbach livestreamed to his subscribers, requesting more of them to go see the movie. He did this in hopes to secure the #1 spot at the box office for the entire weekend, all for the sake of promoting a better future for indie films.
“I’m almost hesitant to ask this, but I think it might be a big win for independent film making,” Fischbach said during the Sunday livestream. “Maybe instead of Disney winning 10 weeks in a row, they could win just 9.”
Fischbach’s efforts to promote indie films seem to be successful, and its impacts are rippling—even for students at Kennesaw State University.
KSU freshman Joshua Johnson, a major in English with a concentration in Film Writing, is one of hundreds of young filmmakers to be inspired by the film.
“It definitely inspired me a ton,” Johnson said. “It made me feel like I could end up helping to make a movie like that someday.”
