Popular YouTuber Markiplier’s Iron Lung movie makes a splash, turning $3M budget into $21.5M box office haul
Iron Lung, developed by David Szymanski and released in 2022, horror simulation game. The players assume the role of an unnamed prisoner who is selected as a guinea pig to explore a vast ocean of blood on an alien moon, in a rust bucket of a submarine, aptly named the Iron Lung.
The game is set in a dark and distant future where mankind has spread across the vastness of space, following a mysterious event known as the “Quiet Rapture,” which caused all stars and habitable planets to vanish, sparing only those aboard space stations or ships. The remnants of humanity, in an effort to secure the very survival of their species, send out expeditions to locate a new home for themselves and come across AT-5, a desolate moon. Upon closer inspection, an expansive ocean has formed on this lost satellite; however, it turns out to be an ocean of human blood.
The person selected to explore potential living options is a convict, sent to explore the depths of this dark, bloody abyss. The game takes place within the tiny vessel, basically an alpha version of an attempt, using an expendable life form. In exchange for completing this reconnaissance mission, the convict has been offered freedom. To explore the depths needed, the sub is basically sealed off from the outside; the players can see outside through a sealed window, and with the help of a camera that mostly takes obscure photographs, their only form of communication is through the radio.
The game was a huge hit upon its release, praised for its story, its overall atmosphere, especially its sound design, with raving reviews from fans, including popular YouTuber Mark ‘Markiplier' Fischbach. He, in fact, loved the game so much that he decided to adapt it into a movie, which he would fund, produce, direct, and star in. With a reported budget of $3 million, the film has gotten off to an incredible start at the box office, raking in an estimated $21.5 million globally in a single weekend.
Both Markiplier and Szymanski were incredibly humbled by this achievement. In an interview with Variety, the streamer was in tears, as he confessed his plans to reward the crew working on the film, "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."
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