Mark Fischback, better known to his legions of YouTube subscribers as Markiplier, scored a massive hit at the movies last weekend with his self-financed flick Iron Lung. Costing only $3 million to make, it has already pulled in more than $21 million.
That placed it right behind the #1 attraction, Sam Raimi's thriller Send Help. Of course, that movie is from a well-established director and had Disney's considerable resources to help market it. Iron Lung was originally booked for just 50 theaters, but exhibitors started booking it across the country. Their faith in the indie effort has been well-rewarded.
"I'm tearing up at the beginning of this," Markiplier said during a YouTube livestream on February 1. "It’s been a bit of an emotional day in the best way possible. So I’ll first say, ‘Thank you guys so much.'”
Theaters and the content creator will split the profits 50-50.
“I personally don’t care about the numbers, other than, ‘Woohoo, success.’ I’m going to be able to give the crew a big bonus. That’s awesome. I’m not a big studio. So the split with the theaters is basically 50-50. It’s really cool because everybody wins.”
Based on a video game, Iron Lung tells the story of a convict forced to search for resources after an apocalyptic event raptures much of humanity. As is often the case with video game projects, the critics and regular audiences are miles apart on their scores. It's at 53 percent critical approval, but it its audience score is at 90 percent.