In the realm of horror cinema, Iron Lung emerges as an intriguing yet fleeting experience. This low-budget film, while brimming with innovative ideas, crafts tension with precision but falls short of delivering spine-chilling scares. However, its true significance lies beyond the screen. In a cinematic landscape dominated by blockbuster giants, Iron Lung carved its niche, amassing over $20 million at the box office without the patronage of a major studio. The secret to its success? A substantial boost from YouTube.

The journey of Iron Lung is one of unique circumstances, unlikely to be easily replicated. The film adapts an indie horror game from 2022, crafted by solo developer David Szymanski. Its creative helm is steered by Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, a YouTube sensation renowned for his engaging “let’s play” videos, particularly of indie horror games. With nearly 40 million subscribers, Markiplier boasts a formidable following. His 2020 playthrough of the game garnered an impressive 14 million views. What began as a joke in 2022 about Markiplier starring in an Iron Lung film became reality with the release of a trailer a year later, culminating in his debut feature film. Not only did he direct, write, and produce the movie, but he also starred in it, a notable accomplishment given the film’s solitary on-screen presence.

The storyline of Iron Lung is strikingly original: set in a dystopian future, a convict, played by Markiplier, faces his sentence inside an experimental submarine, tasked with exploring a moon’s blood-filled ocean. His quest for freedom hinges on his survival and discovery within these crimson depths. With only a low-resolution camera to peer into the oceanic abyss, viewers are drawn into a claustrophobic experience of seeing Markiplier grapple with isolation and madness. Though the film initially harnesses its premise to build suspense effectively, it eventually succumbs to monotony, highlighted by extended sequences like the protagonist painstakingly sketching a map.

The film’s video game roots are unmistakable, employing familiar tropes such as disembodied voice guidance, diegetic storytelling through manuals and displays, and mid-story gear upgrades. These elements, while engaging in a game, translate awkwardly to a live-action format. Despite this, Iron Lung showcases potential as a debut feature, even if it doesn’t fully coalesce.

Financially, Iron Lung is a triumph. Produced on a modest $3 million budget, it clinched the second spot in the US box office over its opening weekend, grossing over $18 million and surpassing $20 million globally. It trailed only behind Sam Raimi’s Send Help and significantly outperformed Amazon’s expensive Melania Trump documentary.

The phenomenon of YouTubers crossing over into other creative domains is not unprecedented in Hollywood. The Philippou brothers transitioned from YouTube fame to successfully releasing horror films like Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, backed by the powerhouse A24. However, Iron Lung‘s journey is a grassroots endeavor. Markiplier leveraged his devoted fan base to bypass traditional distribution channels, securing a presence on over 3,000 screens nationwide. His ability to transform online popularity into cinematic success marks a remarkable achievement in an ever-evolving entertainment landscape.

“There were just so many people that asked [the theater chains to screen it],” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There were enough people that asked that people thought it was bots. At that scale, it’s hard for other people to imagine that so many people are asking.” In that same interview, he said that there’s a “still is a stigma against YouTube,” and he wanted Iron Lung to be successful in part to help break that barrier.

While that might help other big-name creators who want to get into film, it’s not a formula that will be easy for either filmmakers or studios to replicate. Budding horror directors can’t just amass a YouTube audience of millions first as a way of helping their projects break through, and there is an enormous difference between running a channel and making a blockbuster.

But the Iron Lung story does show the power of having an existing audience, and how the scale of online success has now reached a point that it can disrupt even the most established institutions, like Hollywood, and directly compete with the likes of Disney and Amazon. And with more hits like Iron Lung, that stigma will only continue to fade — and theaters might not look the same.