Self-financed horror film being made by YouTuber quadrupled its $3,000,000 budget in just a day and he's giving away half the profits

A self-financed horror film doesn’t usually stroll into theaters and start throwing studio-sized numbers around.

But that’s exactly what happened when a YouTuber decided to back his own film and see what would happen.

The result was a weekend box office run less fitting of an indie experiment and more like a major release.

Then came the part nobody expected.

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The $3 million horror film that hit $21 million

The film is Iron Lung, a cosmic horror project fully self-financed by YouTube creator Markiplier. 

With a reported budget of $3,000,000, it opened to an eye-watering $21,700,000 over its first weekend.

Even briefly topping the Friday box office and landing second overall.

For an independent release, that’s almost unheard of. 

Iron Lung launched on around 4,164 screens worldwide, with roughly 3,000 of those in the US alone. 

What was meant to be a limited one-week run suddenly looked like a full-scale theatrical rollout, and many cinemas are now extending its stay.

A big part of that reach came directly from Markiplier’s audience. 

Fans were encouraged to request the movie at local theaters, and they did so in force, turning online enthusiasm into real-world ticket sales. 

As a result, the film went head-to-head with traditional studio titles, including Send Help from director Sam Raimi, and comfortably outpaced projects with far larger marketing budgets.

The movie itself is based on an indie horror game Markiplier helped popularize years ago through his Let’s Play videos. 

The premise is bleak even by genre standards, following a lone convict sealed inside a submarine and sent into an ocean of blood on a distant moon. 

It’s strange, claustrophobic, and exactly the kind of niche horror few studios would greenlight at scale.

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Why Markiplier won’t pocket the profits

Despite the headline numbers, this isn’t a case of a creator suddenly walking away with $20 million. 

Like most theatrical releases, roughly half the box office revenue goes straight to cinemas. 

On top of that, Iron Lung wasn’t backed by a traditional studio structure designed to funnel profits upward.

After the opening weekend, Markiplier addressed the film’s success during an emotional livestream he dubbed an ‘emergency meeting.’ 

Rather than celebrating a personal payday, he focused on what the money would allow him to do next: reward the people who helped make the movie.

He confirmed that significant bonuses would go to the cast and crew, effectively giving away much of what profit remains. 

As he explained elsewhere, including in interviews with Variety, the project was never about maximizing his own earnings. 

It was about pushing his creative limits and respecting the community that made the release possible.

The response from audiences has backed that approach. 

Iron Lung currently holds a 90 percent fan score on Rotten Tomatoes, even as critics remain split.

In the end, the box office win is impressive. 

The decision to share it is what turned this release into something bigger than a numbers story.

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