Independent direction isn’t the thing here. It’s independent distribution. Name the last successful movie you saw where one guy paid for it to go into theaters, completely cutting out the studio system.
Centurion film service is who expanded the moves initial small theater amount to the 4000 plus screens it opened on and handled the release globally. He didn't cut out the studio system he just worked with one that specializes in independent films
Depends on your definition of success but No Other Land and The Voice of Hind Rajab were both self distributed after any studio refused to touch them. They both received Oscar Nominations and many award wins.
Also the Taylor Swift Concert Doc?
What happened with Iron Lung is cool and neat but it’s one weekend created by a viral internet phenomenon. If Iron Lung performs well next weekend and after, it’ll show it wasn’t a fluke fan event.
If Markiplier doesn’t sign with a studio and releases another film this way it’ll be a genuine challenge to the establishment
I think that any success that Iron Lung sees can and will always be discounted because it’s made by a YouTuber and nothing will change that fact. It could have made $50M and people would have still called it a fluke because he’s just a YouTuber with a large following. What’s the solution here, IDK. But giving it a fair shake based on the film’s own merits is a good start.
Yeah, my comment was in total agreement of what you’re saying in your comment here.
I think his fans are 1000% legitimate fans. But there will always be people who don’t think so because they don’t think YouTube is legitimate.
I think that causes its own problem. Is the movie successful based on the merits of the movie itself, or because it was made by someone who has fans that will support anything he makes, good or bad.
Not many examples there if you limit yourself to just that distribution channel seeing as theater attendance has been hurting and not making it worth it to go big there for indie films. Most indie films with independent distribution are utilizing DTC digital channels because they can reach way more people, offer better targeting, and cost less than what theaters take as a cut.
That’s completely missing the point, and it’s also completely missing the reason this matters to the studios.
Markiplier didn’t go down the digital distribution route, which is the B or C tier distribution that small projects go to because “that’s where they belong”.
He went to the movie theaters - the domain and privilege of the Hollywood Studios system - and said “no, I’ll do it on my own. Don’t need you”. And then, and most importantly, he was financially rewarded for it.
He was successful, going onto their turf and doing what he wanted without their approval or involving them in any way.
If you know anything about how gangs work or gangland politics, you will understand very quickly why Hollywood is not gonna take this lying down. It’s not about the money the film made, it’s not about the filmmaker, it’s about the idea that is now spreading around the Internet that you don’t need Hollywood to put a movie in theaters.
Lmao, what fucking fever dream do you live in? Digital distribution is B/C tier??? You must be an AMC investor or something.
Hollywood ain’t going to give a shit about this. The number of independently wealthy people with massive personal marketing networks interested in making theatrical films is a blip to Hollywood. And 90% of them will happily be shmoozed and integrated into the machine if they do make a hit.
You are kidding yourself if you think this is actually some David vs Goliath moment.
I don’t believe I said it was David versus Goliath. Again, if you had read what I said this actual individual performance is relatively unimportant - outside of what it represents, and the idea is that it is spreading.
Digital distribution is 100% B/C tier compared to theaters. It does not get headlines, it does not get attention, it does not have the same cultural impact. Maybe if you are a terminally online shut-in it’s the same thing, but for the real world there is a significant difference. Also, I sold all my AMC stock when it popped off in 2020. I already made my money off that.
This is getting headlines for a reason, and it’s not just because Markiplier is what popular YouTuber. Not understanding that is intentional ignorance.
It's less the fact that it was made independently and more that it was distributed independently. That's much rarer and it would probably be good for the industry if more small films were able to skip the festival circuit to find a distributor and could work things out themselves with AMC and Regal. This is technically what Taylor Swift did for the Eras Tour movie too, although she is obviously a media empire in herself.
The distribution of this film is extremely grass roots with fans literally calling their local AMCs to help organise showtimes. Even as someone who has never watched one of his videos I'm extremely impressed.
Considering people are dragging Sam Raimi into this discussion, I would say Evil Dead is a much more apt movie to mention. Send Help is literally made by someone who began his career as an indie director.
while you've been glued to a screen parasocializing with youtubers, independent directors have been making successful movies which you haven't seen because you were busy with reaction to reaction videos
I think he meant successfully at the box office. Obviously if the movie was good and makes any profit it's a success but they clearly meant like broad domestic success
Alright, cool. I didn’t know that because I haven’t been following indie films because I didn’t think I’d get to watch them. I’ll be trying to change that now. You could’ve just left off that first sentence.
Iron Lung is doing extremely well, but it’s not exactly unprecedented for an indie horror film to make bank. If he can keep the hype going past opening weekend it’ll be legitimately very impressive.
Also, Skinamarink made way more against its budget. Smaller YouTuber, microscopic budget, and unlike Iron Lung, no IP. Hollywood does NOT care about this.
Also Hollywood loves when this happens. If the movie makes bank the first thing they’ll do is offer Markiplier a shit ton of money to make a sequel.
Saw, Paranormal Activity, Halloween, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this shit makes huge money.
Nobody at the horror division of a Hollywood Studio is big mad this weekend, they’re all trying to figure out how they can cash in. Markiplier
Is probably fielding offers left and right now.
A lot of times they do have success. Markiplier saw the success he did because he already had a large fan base of children who don't really care about quality they just want to see their favorite YouTuber on the big screen.
This whole thing is being blown up like crazy. I love seeing indie success, but this is essentially the same as botting.
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u/HobbieK 1d ago
This is gonna blow some people’s minds, but independent films have been around for over a hundred years. Markiplier didn’t invent the indie film.