Markiplier Breaks Down His $50M Movie Live

**Colin** (0:00)
Our guest today is Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier. We sat down with him and YouTube's Tim Katz at the Fox Studios lot in Los Angeles in front of over 650 creators during our event Press Publish LA, the Hollywood Creator Summit. We threw this event because we are at a true convergence moment right now between YouTube and Hollywood, and we couldn't think of a better person to sit down with than Markiplier. He's a YouTuber in the truest sense, who uploaded his first video to the platform over 15 years ago. But more recently, he made headlines after self-financing, directing, and starring in his indie horror film, Iron Lung. The success of the film turned heads in Hollywood, and it marked the beginning of a new era for creators. We get into what this moment on YouTube means, what it takes to go from YouTuber to filmmaker, and what the future of Hollywood may look like now that creators are getting involved. Before we get into the conversation, I just want to say a big thank you to YouTube for coming in as a title sponsor for Press Publish LA. We've been on YouTube for 16 years, so having them back this event and believe in what we're building was truly a full circle moment. They brought out a ton of their team members to help answer questions from creators. They had sessions about the future of YouTube, and they helped us surprise everyone in the room with Markiplier.

**Samir** (1:11)
Mark, you've been on YouTube for a very long time. You recently made a movie.

**Colin** (1:17)
Yes.

**Samir** (1:18)
Iron Lung.

**Mark Fischbach** (1:19)
Yes.

**Samir** (1:21)
A lot of chatter in this town about that movie.

**Mark Fischbach** (1:23)
Good chatter?

**Samir** (1:24)
I think so, right? Can you talk to us a bit about the decision to make a movie after 15 years on YouTube? That feels overwhelming to me. Although I'm someone who has always wanted to make a movie, I feel like my comfort is in making YouTube videos.
How do you jump from making videos on YouTube to making a feature film?

**Mark Fischbach** (1:48)
You probably start by taking smaller steps.
There's this barrier, a movie. It's very special. It's prestigious. They're right, even if I'm mocking that right there. But if I'm going to be taken seriously in one way or another, I have to make a movie at some point that appears in theaters. I knew that. I don't do much strategy, but that's probably the first part where I was just like, okay, if I want to make bigger things in the future, I have to at least make a movie so they can be presented on an even playing field from everyone else's productions and they could take me seriously as an artist. Because I had made YouTube originals before that. I had two with Heist and Space with Markiplier, and those were big. One was nominated for an Emmy. I lost.
But even those were considered like YouTube things. Even though I know the production for In Space with Markiplier was bigger than Iron Lung by a lot. It was like 300 and something pages that I wrote. It was like 89 videos, 6.5 hours of content. Bigger set, bigger crew, more cast.
It was bigger in every way than Iron Lung, but it wasn't as focused. So I wanted an idea that I could make that was extremely focused so that it would have the best chance to put forward the artistry of the people on the crew that I know were of a certain level of skill. And then it was going to be the culmination of what I had learned up until that point, making short films and then the YouTube original projects. And then I was like, okay, if the time is now, which it was, I need to make this and I need to have an idea for it. So I foolishly thought that a single location horror movie would be an easy way to get into it. It was definitely not.

**Samir** (3:33)
That feels like a classic trope for all creators. I feel like Colin and I was like, that's not hard.

**Colin** (3:38)
Every idea sounds easy.

**Samir** (3:38)
It's a simple idea. We'll do that really quick. And it's always a beast.

**Colin** (3:42)
So Iron Lung was very successful and started being talked about all over. And the last numbers I saw, you can tell me, but the last number I saw was it cost close to 3 million and did 50 million in revenue.

**Mark Fischbach** (3:57)
I would say All Things Considered.

**Samir** (4:02)
He hasn't said the real number.