Markiplier’s IRON LUNG Finally Lands a Streaming Release Date on YouTube and Teases What’s Next
When Mark Fischbach, better known online as Markiplier, first announced he was turning the indie horror gameIron Lung into a feature film, a lot of people weren’t convinced it would work.
The source material from David Szymanski is incredibly stripped down. A lone prisoner trapped inside a rusted submarine, drifting through an ocean of blood on a dead moon, doesn’t exactly scream “mainstream box office hit.” Add in the fact that Fischbach had never directed a feature before, and the skepticism made sense.
Then Iron Lung arrived and completely steamrolled expectations. Fischbach personally financed the movie with a reported $4 million budget so he could keep full creative control, and that gamble turned into one of horror’s wildest success stories in recent memory.
The film pulled in $17.8 million domestically during opening weekend without spending a cent on traditional marketing. Instead, Markiplier’s massive YouTube following did the heavy lifting.
By the end of its theatrical run, Iron Lung had crossed $50 million worldwide, giving the film an absurd return on investment and turning Fischbach into a filmmaker the horror community is now paying close attention to.
Now the movie officially has a streaming release locked in. During a Deadline-moderated panel at the Cannes Film Festival, Fischbach confirmed that Iron Lung will launch exclusively on YouTube as a paid purchase starting May 31, 2026.
The decision feels fitting considering the platform has been the foundation of his career for years. Talking about the choice, Fischbach explained, “I’m pretty loyal to it,” referring to YouTube as his home.
The Cannes panel also came with another interesting update. Fischbach revealed he’s planning to step away for “at least one year” after the nonstop grind of making and releasing Iron Lung.
According to him, the break is largely about reconnecting with his wife and recovering from the massive amount of work the production demanded.
That doesn’t mean he’s finished with filmmaking. “Next year I’ll be working on something,” Fischbach confirmed during the discussion, though he kept every other detail under wraps.
Iron Lung leaned heavily into suffocating tension and isolation, attempting to create dread inside the submarine. Fischbach also edited the movie himself, handled international distribution through Piece of Magic Entertainment, and reportedly doubled the salaries of the cast and crew using profits from the film. In an industry constantly looking for ways to trim costs, that move earned him a lot of respect.
What makes the success of Iron Lung even more interesting is how it continues the growing trend of YouTube creators breaking through Hollywood’s old gatekeeping system.
Studios used to dismiss YouTubers as internet personalities who couldn’t transition into traditional filmmaking. Horror has been proving otherwise for years now.
The clearest example is Australian directing duo Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, the creators behind the RackaRacka channel, who exploded onto the scene with Talk to Me in 2022.
That film earned more than $90 million worldwide on a modest budget and was followed by the successful 2025 horror film Bring Her Back. Before that, David F. Sandberg turned his viral short Lights Out into a feature film that launched his mainstream directing career.
And next up is Kane Parsons, whose viral Backrooms series is getting the A24 treatment with a feature adaptation starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve.
At this point, the line between “YouTuber” and filmmaker keeps getting thinner. With Iron Lung arriving on YouTube at the end of the month and another mystery project already brewing, Fischbach’s career is heading into an interesting new chapter.