Markiplier’s cinematic debut as an actor, writer, and director came to fruition with the “Iron Lung” project, which was released independently across 4,161 theaters internationally on January 30, 2026. Filming for the movie started in 2023, and now, fans of the YouTuber can finally watch him in action on the big screen. Notably, within its first 48 hours of release, Iron Lung earned about $12.4 million.
This figure is over four times the $3 million budget that Mark and his team set for themselves to make the movie, which is based on a 2022 submarine simulation horror game by David Szymanski. Soon after its release, Iron Lung hit number one on the Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for Friday, January 30, 2026. Markiplier celebrated this achievement on social media, writing:
“Iron Lung is the NUMBER 1 MOVIE (today) IN AMERICA!!!”
On Friday, Iron Lung stood atop big-budget productions like 20th Century Studios’ Send Help, and Amazon’s Melania, a documentary film about the First Lady, Melania Trump. That being said, on January 31, Saturday, the movie seemingly vanished from the box office charts. This caused fans across the internet to believe that Iron Lung had been unfairly removed from the list.
Markiplier addressed the controversy online, comparing his movie’s positioning on Friday to Saturday:
“This is funny, on Friday, the box office numbers, I’m number one… I knew [Send Help] was going to pass me eventually by the end of the weekend… But then, I didn’t see this yesterday, but here’s Saturday’s, I swear I was on this list… Iron Lung isn’t here anymore… I thought maybe, ‘Hey, this is a fluke.'”
Regardless, on Sunday, February 1, Iron Lung was still not on the charts. On the same day, Mark shared a post on his YouTube page suggesting that Iron Lung’s absence may be a deliberate ploy, while thanking his supporters for watching the movie:
“This is hilarious, they took Iron Lung off the charts. I don’t think they liked my #1 movie in america victory laps haha. But really it’s all good, I fully expected Send Help to pass the movie eventually and I’m just so happy to be able to do this at all so second place behind a legend is fine with me. Thank you all so much for making it such an unbelievable weekend, I couldn’t be happier!”
Markiplier’s Iron grosses $17,800,000 in the Box Office Charts
Despite the confusion, Iron Lung was back on the charts soon after Mark’s posts about the situation. As of this writing, the movie has a total gross amount of $17.8 million according to The Numbers, nearly six times its original budget.
Above the movie stands the Sam Raimi-directed American survival horror film, Send Help, which is currently grossing about $20 million. The highly-anticipated Melania film takes the number three spot with just over $7 million at the Box Office.
Overall, based on numbers alone, Iron Lung has become a commercial success, and IMDb rates it a 6.7/10.
In other news, Markiplier responded to allegations of AI use in his clothing brand, Cloak.
Edited by Vishnu Menon
