Iron Lung has shocked viewers with a massive $21M box office debut, following close behind Sam Raimi’s new horror movie, Send Help, which has a much bigger budget and star power.
Though I’m delighted to see two horror movies performing well, it’s particularly notable that YouTuber Markiplier (real name Mark Fischbach) has seen such incredible success, with huge box-office takings despite a comparatively small $3M budget.
Both Fischbach and Szymanski were stunned by Iron Lung‘s success, and who could blame them? We’ve long ignored independent horror, and the genre at large has been snubbed at prestigious award ceremonies – I’m still bitter about The Substance‘s poor Oscars performance.
Iron Lung’s success should not be ignored, despite the mixed reviews
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Iron Lung has divided critics and audiences, and there’s quite a difference between the two Rotten Tomatoes scores. Much like the Iron Lung, its critic score is sinking, and currently sits at just 44%. Meanwhile, audiences are much more enamored, awarding it 89%.
We could spend all day arguing about who is “right”, and if there’s a natural bias among general audiences who may be fans of Markiplier already, and an equal bias among critics who may not see YouTubers as “real filmmakers”.
But that’s not the point; the huge box office figures show that people want to support independent cinema, and that’s the beautiful thing about all of this. Seeing Iron Lung getting more screenings gives me hope for the future.
As I mentioned, Markiplier’s movie has even held its own against Sam Raimi’s Send Help. Since Raimi is a highly established filmmaker known for works like The Evil Dead, it could’ve been easy for his movie to completely blow Markiplier’s out of the water, but that didn’t happen. They have both been a success, encouraging people to go to the movies and support the arts.
Independent horror is thriving right now. The movie Good Boy, starring Indy the Dog as its courageous protagonist, began with a limited theatrical run that was gradually extended, but it still didn’t get the attention it deserved, in my opinion.
Good Boy was financially successful too, with a budget of $70,000 and a box office of $8.7M. Stuff like this reminds me of Oren Peli’s once independent Paranormal Activity, now a huge franchise, thanks to an unbelievable $194.2M box office result against its $215,000 budget.
We need to start giving independent horror a proper chance to succeed again, like we did with Paranormal Activity back in 2007 and now with Iron Lung in 2026.
I would love to see more of these movies picked up by bigger theater chains going forward, and I hope Markiplier’s directorial debut has encouraged positive change to happen.
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