Posted by Alumni from The Atlantic
February 17, 2026
At the box office earlier this month, four out of the five top-grossing movies were not from big companies. There was Solo Mio, an inspirational romantic drama starring Kevin James from the faith-based distributor Angel Studios; a filmed concert from the K-pop group Stray Kids; and a French adaptation of Dracula from the director Luc Besson that had already made big money overseas. But by far the most unusual offering was Iron Lung, which has thus far grossed more than $30 million domestically against a $3 million budget. It is a strange sci-fi tale of a man exploring a mysterious underwater world, but stranger still is the fact that it's even in theaters: Iron Lung was funded, made, and released entirely by a YouTuber most famous for playing video games on camera. The writer-director of Iron Lung is Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier'one of the most popular content creators on YouTube, if not the internet. He's a veteran of the video format known as 'Let's Play,' in which... learn more