At least one thing in the world is at peace: the oil and water of Christophe Gans' Return to Silent Hill and the new Iron Lung adaptation directed by YouTuber Markiplier has seemingly brought video game movies to a state of total equilibrium. Return to Silent Hill is, regrettably, a box office disaster, while Iron Lung made so much money on its opening night, not even its creator could believe it.
Developer David Szymanski writes on Twitter, "What the fuck." According to Variety, Iron Lung nearly tripled Markiplier's self-funded $3 million budget in one night, earning $8.9 million on January 30.
The horror movie has since gone on to massacre the rest of its competition, amassing $17.8 million in the US over the weekend and $21.7 million worldwide. Its domestic box office ranking – Iron Lung sits leisurely in second place – is only rivaled by Sam Raimi's desert island showdown Send Help, which has so far amassed $28.1 million globally.
Someone on Twitter asks Szymanski how it feels for Iron Lung to rank so highly, and he responds, "Dreamlike." Indeed, I would have never imagined Szymanski's hour-long, $8 game about commanding a submarine through an ocean of blood could have ever turned into a two-hours-long, multimillion-dollar film with its own commemorative bloody popcorn bucket. But now that there are so many megacorporations putting both indie games and movie theaters at risk, I'm glad it did.
