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  "path": "/story/26/02/17/1825211/a-youtubers-3m-movie-nearly-beat-disneys-40m-thriller-at-the-box-office?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-17T19:09:38.368Z",
  "site": "https://entertainment.slashdot.org",
  "tags": [
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  "textContent": "Mark Fischbach, the YouTube creator known as Markiplier who has spent nearly 15 years building an audience of more than 38 million subscribers by playing indie-horror video games on camera, has pulled off something that most independent filmmakers never manage -- a self-financed, self-distributed debut feature that has grossed more than $30 million domestically against a $3 million budget. Iron Lung, a 127-minute sci-fi adaptation of a video game Fischbach wrote, directed, starred in, and edited himself, opened to $18.3 million in its first weekend and has since doubled that figure worldwide in just two weeks, nearly matching the $19.1 million debut of Send Help, a $40 million thriller from Disney-owned 20th Century Studios. Fischbach declined deals from traditional distributors and instead spent months booking theaters privately, encouraging fans to reserve tickets online; when prospective viewers found the film wasn't screening in their city, they called local cinemas to request it, eventually landing Iron Lung on more than 3,000 screens across North America -- all without a single paid media campaign.\n\n \n\nRead more of this story at Slashdot.",
  "title": "A YouTuber's $3M Movie Nearly Beat Disney's $40M Thriller at the Box Office",
  "updatedAt": "2026-02-17T18:45:00.000Z"
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