Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, is one of the most successful, long-running YouTubers in the field. His turn behind the camera has yielded similar success, as he directed and starred in the feature film adaptation of the horror game Iron Lung. The film has netted $50 million on a roughly $4 million budget, competing with studio offerings on a legitimately grassroots distribution campaign. Fischbach now warns Hollywood to ignore fellow YouTubers at its peril.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least a lot of Hollywood was willfully ignoring the potential of YouTubers here,\u201d Fischbach told the Lemonade Stand podcast (via PC Gamer<\/a>). \u201cThere is that level of respect that I just haven\u2019t met yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Fischbach has been posting videos since 2012. Best known for let\u2019s plays of horror games like Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s and Amnesia, he has not faltered in popularity<\/a> or spiraled out<\/a> like many of his contemporaries. In 2023, he stated his intention to write, direct, star and distribute a film based on David Szymanski\u2019s game Iron Lung, in which the player pilots a claustrophobic, windowless submarine in a deep ocean of blood. Unassuming, independent films have stunned the box office in the past. With a leaner budget and a mighty return, Iron Lung joins the ranks of hits like 2002\u2019s My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the independent Canadian comedy that twisted a $5 million budget into a nearly $400 million box office haul. One of the films Iron Lung competed against was Send Help, the latest gross-out thriller from Sam Raimi, who stormed Hollywood with his own shoestring 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead.<\/p>\n But what seems to stick in the paw of YouTubers like Fischbach isn\u2019t commercial success. In all likelihood, content creators at his level make more money than most working Hollywood directors. It\u2019s the more elusive prestige factor that haunts them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey said it shouldn\u2019t be done. Not that it couldn\u2019t be done,\u201d Fischbach told Variety<\/a>. \u201cPeople have made movies before, just that it would be \u2018woefully unwise\u2019 to tackle writing, directing, acting and editing a movie myself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n