Markiplier says Hollywood was 'willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers' before his film Iron Lung made $50 million at the box office

Markiplier says Hollywood was ‘willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers’ before his film Iron Lung made $50 million at the box office | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Movies & TV First Monopoly, then Catan, and now Netflix has announced a movie based on the Ticket to Ride board game RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s fractious creative director Daniel Vávra won’t lead Warhorse’s next game—It’s not a ‘breakup,’ he’s just making the Kingdom Come film Gaming Industry ‘It’s pretty sad and pathetic that a game with difficult content can’t get on the larger marketplaces:’ Despite creeping censorship on Steam and Epic, these devs are fighting to make a transgressive stop-motion horror game Movies & TV In defense of Doom (the movie) Horror ‘Art and science and procreation, that’s about all life is good for:’ Two former freeware developers are still trying to keep it weird in an era when companies ‘sell games to people in 5-second clips’ Gaming Industry Players spent roughly 10,250,000,000 monthly hours in Roblox in 2025, analyst says—more than Steam, PlayStation, and Fortnite combined Movies & TV Resident Evil director Paul W. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Horror film Iron Lung, based on the indie videogame by developer David Szymanski, hit movie theaters in February. It starred, was directed by, and maybe most interestingly, was distributed by YouTuber Markiplier working outside of the traditional Hollywood system. The movie was originally planned for release in only about 60 theaters in the US, but a fan campaign led to a premiere for Iron Lung in over 4,000 theaters worldwide.While reviews are mixed, they do generally lean positive, and perhaps most importantly as far as Hollywood is concerned, the film grossed nearly $50 million—on a budget Markiplier has stated was “a little over” four million dollars.Appearing on the Lemonade Stand podcast this week, Markiplier was asked if any production companies or movie studios had shown interest in producing or distributing Iron Lung based on his success with his YouTube projects, including In Space With Markiplier, for which he received an Emmy nomination. Related articles ‘What the f**k’: Iron Lung creator puzzled as Markiplier’s film adaptation quadruples its budget in one day, beating out Melania and Send Help at the box