YouTube Executive Says IRON LUNG Box Office Hit is Both “Scary” And “Fruitful For The Industry”
The walls between YouTube creators and traditional Hollywood just got a lot thinner, and Iron Lung is the movie that helped punch the hole.
The sci-fi horror feature, made by YouTube megastar Markiplier and backed largely by his own wallet, didn’t just survive a theatrical release, it dominated it.
During a recent conversation, Kim Larson, global managing director and head of creators at YouTube, pointed to Iron Lung as a clear signal that the entertainment landscape is shifting fast.
Released last week alongside wide studio titles like Send Help, the film shocked the industry with a massive $21 million opening weekend.
What makes that number even wilder is how the movie got there. Iron Lung was financed with roughly $3 million of Mark Edward Fischbach’s own money and still landed in over 3,000 theaters. That doesn’t happen through studio muscle. That happens through community.
“He literally went to these theaters and said, ‘Hey, will you show it for me?’ And that community stepped up,” Larson said.
“Nobody thought that was possible. And I think that people are waking up to the power and the financial opportunity that comes with a community that’s as devoted as that one is.”
That community, of course, includes over 38 million subscribers who followed Markiplier from YouTube into a dark, claustrophobic sci-fi nightmare on the big screen. The turnout was so impressive it forced the industry to pay attention.
Larson also touched on why creator-driven projects like Iron Lung are starting to blur long-standing lines between content categories. According to her, audiences don’t segment entertainment the way executives often do.
“I think we overestimate the degree to which people discern different content types. I think we’re really precious about live sports, scripted shows, creator-led entertainment … It’s just, like, what do people want to watch in the moment? What is entertaining? What’s going to captivate them?
“So, we’re just seeing these barriers coming down in a way that is probably scary for a lot of people but also really fruitful for the industry.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the project, Iron Lung is an adaptation of the 2022 indie horror game by David Szymanski and stars Fischbach alongside Caroline Rose Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Seán McLoughlin, and Isaac McKee.
The story follows Simon, a convicted criminal forced to pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on a dead moon. Humanity and even the stars themselves vanished after a catastrophic event known as the Quiet Rapture, leaving behind nothing but darkness, pressure, and dread.
It’s bleak, intense, and unapologetically long and boring, but it connected with fans. Hollywood has spent years trying to figure out how to tap into creator culture.
Iron Lung didn’t wait for permission. It showed up, filled theaters, and made a lot of executives rethink what’s possible when a filmmaker shows up with a camera, a vision, and millions of fans ready to buy a ticket.
Source: Deadline