“Iron Lung” could be the push the independent film industry needs

BY BRENNA DEMPSEY

Executive Producer

For a while now, the independent film industry has been struggling in the wake of COVID-19, artificial intelligence and a general lack of recognition. But “Iron Lung,” a film directed and produced by Mark Fischbach, the YouTuber known as Markiplier, has hit the box office big time.

“Iron Lung” has done something that not many other indie films have been able to do: It had a theatrical release without any major studio attached to it. Typically, without a big-name studio like Disney, A24, Lionsgate and so on, it would be hard to find a theater that would want to release due to the unpredictability of sales. 

For the average indie film, the producer must pay to have their work shown at film festivals or other events to catch the attention of distributors in order to gain momentum. However, Fischbach was not interested in that route and opted to lobby the film straight to local theaters.

During the process of getting the film on the big screen, Fischbach asked his fans to reach out to their local theaters and request the film if they were interested in watching it. This worked far better than he expected. 

This got his film into over 4,000 theaters globally because it was picked up by Regal Cinemas and later AMC and Cinemark. 

From the start, he knew he wanted his film on the big screen.

“I believe it deserves to be in theaters. And I didn't think that it was going to be a lot of theaters, but I was going to bring it to theaters no matter what,” Fischbach said on his YouTube channel.

After the span of two years, with a $3 million budget and a small but dedicated crew, “Iron Lung” was finally released. 

Though its initial Dec. 5 announcement slated it for a limited three-day run—Jan. 30 to Feb. 1— after getting a spot with the bigger cinemas, it ended up airing for up to two weeks.

As of Feb. 9, it has made a gross total of $31.5 domestically, which sits close to Sam Raimi’s “Send Help,” a film distributed by 20th Century Studios that is sitting at $34.8 domestically with a production cost of around $40 million.

This is a win for the world of independent film production because it did well at the box office, and theaters recognized that. This could possibly lead to a small but important change in the distribution of independent films, giving talented and passionate producers a chance to share their work further, even without a major distributor. 

While there might have been a different outcome if Fischbach were not a well-known YouTuber with over 38 million subscribers, it is still a good sign for the indie film community.

It goes to show that creator-driven films can find greater success, even when the odds are not in their favor.