Mark Fischbach, known to millions as Markiplier, just shattered Hollywood’s gates with a sledgehammer made of fake blood.
His debut film Iron Lung raked in over $20 million at the box office without a single traditional studio backing him.
It’s a seismic shift that proves digital creators don’t need permission slips from old-guard gatekeepers anymore.
And the industry? They’re scrambling to catch up.
Hollywood’s Awkward Reckoning
After fellow YouTubers RackaRacka scored massive wins with Talk To Me and Bring Her Back, followed by Curry Barker’s game-changing horror film Obsession at TIFF, many wondered if Hollywood was finally warming up to digital creators.
Fischbach isn’t buying it.
Less than you’d think. It’s hard to gauge because being kind of outside in the first place… it’s probably now something that they can’t ignore.
He recounts an Emmy nomination experience that perfectly encapsulates Hollywood’s bizarre resistance to embracing new media talent.
I was at the red carpet—I notoriously hate red carpets—but the publications that were there didn’t want to talk to me, and I’m fine with that. If you don’t want to talk to me, I’m not going to make you talk to me. But in my mind, it’s strange because if you put out a video with me in it, it’s going to be good for you.
The numbers don’t lie. With 38 million subscribers, refusing to engage with Fischbach isn’t just snobbery—it’s terrible business.
I have 38 million subscribers. It’s a bad business decision to not want to do it just because I’m a YouTuber and they knew who I was.
But times are changing, whether traditional media likes it or not.
What Makes Iron Lung So Terrifying
Based on David Szymanski’s indie horror game, Iron Lung follows Simon, a convict forced to pilot a submarine through an ocean of blood on a desolate moon.
Humanity? Mostly gone after an event called the Quiet Rapture wiped out stars and civilization alike.
Fischbach wrote, directed, and starred in this claustrophobic nightmare.
What this game does really well is it puts a unique perspective on a horror environment that people are not used to. People have seen a lot of horror movies, but being isolated with such a limited view in such a bizarre environment, in a submarine in an ocean of blood, there’s all these questions popping up and you don’t know what’s outside.
The horror isn’t just visual—it’s deeply atmospheric and audio-driven, creating dread through what you can’t see rather than jump scares.
Breaking Records With Fake Blood
Iron Lung has been making headlines for box office success, but there’s another record Fischbach is particularly proud of.
The record I know of right now is blood. Most fake blood. And that one is, I mean, if you’ve seen it, it’s pretty obvious. Look, it’s an ocean of blood. There’s no way it’s not going to have the record.
Creating an ocean of blood wasn’t just ambitious—it was an engineering nightmare.
Fischbach’s background as an engineer came flooding back as he dealt with weight considerations and physics that would make your high school teacher proud.
The liquid weight alone, even partially full, just a foot and a half, was an extra 9,000 pounds. It’s enormous. It boggles the mind. That’s maybe a thousand gallons to that point. When you start to go above that, you can’t really move it much because if you move it too much, it’ll tsunami out the walls of the set.
Picture this: semi-trailers hauling farm-sized industrial chemical containers of fake blood sloshing down highways.
An industrial dumpster filled with 8,000 to 9,000 gallons just for dunking scenes.
Dethroning Evil Dead
Before Iron Lung, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead held the title for most fake blood used in a film, with an often-cited figure of 50,000 gallons from that infamous blood rain scene.
Fischbach has thoughts on that number.
They say it’s from that blood rain scene. And I’m not throwing shade on them, but they don’t have a verifiable number for that 50,000 gallons someone put out. I think it’s one of those things where someone said it and no one denied it. I know what dealing with that quantity of blood is.
Having wrestled with thousands of gallons himself, Fischbach understands the logistical reality behind those numbers.
The Five Nights at Freddy’s Role That Never Was
When asked about dream horror IP projects, Fischbach revealed a surprising near-miss with Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel.
I was supposed to be in it and I wasn’t. Because I was working on this, so I just couldn’t spare any time. I was supposed to be the guy that died in the first scene in part two.
Scheduling conflicts with Iron Lung meant passing on the cameo that fans would have lost their minds over.
But given how Iron Lung turned out, it’s clear Fischbach made the right call prioritizing his own vision.
Horror Influences and Future Projects
Ask Fischbach which horror movie haunted his childhood, and Event Horizon immediately surfaces.
Event Horizon stuck with me as a horror. Yeah, that gave me nightmares for a long time. A lot of what I’ve done always kind of goes back to those aesthetics.
That influence shows up throughout his work, including ship designs in his previous project In Space with Markiplier.
While he’s not jumping at rebooting Event Horizon himself, he respects what the original achieved too much to mess with perfection.
Keeping an Eye on The Mortuary Assistant
Another indie horror game adaptation on Fischbach’s radar is The Mortuary Assistant from DreadXP.
It was scary. I think it was very good. I’m interested to see what it’s going to be as a movie. I think it’s a good concept. It’s a very enclosed space. There are a lot of good scares in the game.
He’s particularly intrigued by how the film will handle the game’s semi-realistic depiction of embalming processes—a morbidly fascinating element that elevated the source material.
Digital Creators Are Here to Stay
Fischbach’s success with Iron Lung represents something bigger than one filmmaker’s triumph.
It’s proof that digital creators possess storytelling skills, business acumen, and audience connections that rival—and often exceed—traditional Hollywood players.
While publications might still turn their noses up at red carpets, box office receipts don’t lie.
The democratization of filmmaking isn’t coming—it’s already here. And it’s covered in fake blood.
Iron Lung is currently playing in theaters nationwide.