2026 has been a pretty good year for movies so far, if I do say so myself.

We started out the year SUPER strong with Markiplier’s self-produced/written/directed/acted/distributed/marketed box office hit Iron Lung and what a way to start the year!

Atmospheric, scary, spooky, immersive, thought-provoking, adrenaline-pumping, horror – I could not be more impressed with Mr. Markiplier. Not only did he have to do everything himself, he out-earned his budget by a mile and became the number one movie in America opening weekend. With a budget of under 5 million, the whopping 51 million worldwide meant that the film was definitely a success.

And, for those of you that don’t know – let me just break it down for you a little bit.

Markiplier is a YouTuber, most famous for his scary games let’s plays. Iron Lung is an indie game developed by David Szymanzki, that Markiplier played, loved, and acquired movie adaption rights for via DM (initially.) Mark then proceeded to write, film, fund, and edit the entire project, even going so far as to convert his own home bathroom into a render farm to get the job done, over the next couple of years.

Once filming and a majority of the editing had been completed, he began the official process of shopping the finished product around to companies for an official theatrical release – a process that fell on deaf ears. After nearly a year (could’ve been slightly more or less) of no success, he decided to just go directly to the movie theaters himself for the release.

Initially it was only supposed to release in a handful of theaters for one weekend. But Markiplier urged his fanbase that if they wanted the movie to come to a theater near them, to then reach out to their local movie theaters and request the film.

The response was massive and immediate.

By the time release day rolled around the film had gone from a handful theaters to over 4,161. And not just in local indie theaters , but in the massive chains ones such as AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. And not just for one weekend but for almost 4 weeks.

Markiplier proved something huge. Fans want to go to the movies. And they want to see real art by real artists. The movie theaters aren’t dying out – the fans just aren’t interested in boring budget bloated remakes. Give them something new, something interesting, something with heart and soul, something made by humans who actually care about what they’re doing – and fans will be there.

Overall, I give Iron Lung a 10 out of 10! I genuinely can’t think of what he could’ve done better that he didn’t do. All I can say is that I hope that he continues to make movies and I am so excited and can’t wait for them when he does. He’s working on the DVD’s for Iron Lung right now, and I can’t wait!

And, Iron Lung wasn’t the only good movie this year!

Stick around and I’ll share my other 2026 favorites so far in more posts.

Ciao!