The Iron Lung movie based on the video game from YouTube creator Markiplier continues to put up massive numbers at the box office.
In its second weekend, Iron Lung brought in an addition $6.2 million from 2,930 theaters across the US, Variety reported. The movie cost an estimated $3 million to make, and with a worldwide haul of more than $34.2 million from all markets combined, it’s a huge hit.
Markiplier, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, funded the movie himself. He also wrote it, stars in it, and directed the R-rated movie about a fugitive who scavenges through a sea of blood on a submarine called the Iron Lung. The film has great reviews on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, as well as Rotten Tomatoes.
David Szymanski created the video game and co-wrote the script with Fischbach. Szymanski also has a cameo in the movie.
With its current box office success, the Iron Lung movie has made back about 11 times its budget already, which is a feat that not many movies can claim. Of course, the Iron Lung movie is not directly comparable to other, bigger-budget movies from established studios.
In any event, the movie is a big success, but Fishbach has said in interviews that he sees it as something as a sidequest in his career and pursued it simply because he wanted to.
He also could have made more money from the Iron Lung movie, but opted for a 50/50 split with theaters showing it–that’s lower than the industry average. Fishbach previously said he would use the Iron Lung movie’s box office profits to pay bonuses to the cast and crew.
Iron Lung has made more than double what Return to Silent Hill has brought in worldwide ($15.7 million).
The highest-grossing video game movie ever is The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide. Its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, releases in theaters this April.
