How a YouTuber's Self-Financed Horror Film Became a Surprise Hit

How a YouTuber's self-financed horror film became a surprise hit. IRON LUNG IS THE NUMBER ONE MOVIE IN AMERICA. BUT IF YOU KNOW anything about Markiplier, this is probably not a surprise. [music] His indie horror film Iron Lung just made history. >> to talk about how Markiplier's independent horror film could change Hollywood. >> And in the case of Iron Lung, it is doing something very unusual. There's a unicorn up there. >> Regal has picked it up, [music]

Cinemark has picked it up, AMC has picked it up. Pretty much every major movie chain that you know of in the United States has picked it up. >> [snorts] >> Oh, man. Thank you everybody so much for watching. At the time of this recording, it has grossed $48 million with a reported budget of around 3 million. And it's not just because he has 38 million YouTube subscribers. [music] There's so much more to it than that. >>

So if you work in Hollywood and you read this headline, you you might make an assumption that you should just find a YouTuber with a big audience and make a movie with them and that'll drive similar results. But that's just not the case [music] at all. So as we looked into this story, we broke down three reasons why this movie was such [music] a success. We also went to see the movie earlier today. In the rain.

You're welcome Mark. >> Yeah. You know how hard it is in Los Angeles >> [music] >> to go across the city in the rain? It was worth it. It was worth it, Mark. Great movie. All right, we're going to tell you what Markiplier's historic movie means for creators. Let's get into it. I actually don't know the story of how this came together. I am not part of Markiplier's community. I I don't know how the movie came

together. >> Yeah. I also am not a part of the community, but I have been fascinated by this story the last three or four days. I've just been reading every article I can find. I've been listening to very long podcasts about this and I've tried to distill the most interesting points here for you. First off, for anyone who does not know Markiplier, I would imagine if you spend any time on YouTube, you do know him. He

is one of the legends of the platform. He started out in 2012 primarily as part of the Let's Play genre, so very long-form videos playing video games. >> Hello everybody and welcome to Let's Play Skyrim. Okay, now I'm not going to do that ever again. Initially, those gameplay videos were split up into sections. He'd post upwards of 10 videos a day, but now they are much longer and he's playing a game and he's joking around. It's

very raw and authentic. It's like similar, I guess, to a long-form podcast. You're getting the real version of him. He's always been based in indie horror. He's had a lot of breakout hits, whether it was Amnesia in the beginning. I'm sure you're more familiar with Five Nights at Freddy's, FNAF. FNAF That was a major hit for him, as well. 2022, he plays indie horror game Iron Lung and I want to play for you the beginning of

the video. My name is Markiplier. Welcome to Iron Lung. Every known star and habitable planet vanished, leaving only those who were on space stations or starships. This event became known as the quiet rapture. You are a convict tasked with exploring this anomaly in a makeshift submarine nicknamed the Iron Lung. It was not designed for this depth, so you will be welded inside and a forward window will be closed. There is no time for training. It's a

good story. It's a good story and he's the right voice for this story. >> Yeah, totally. He just feels cinematic even when you watch him set up the story of the game. Yeah. So, this is in '22. He ends up just really falling in love with the story of the game. And the world that the creator has built out and he decides that he wants to reach out to the creator of the game. It's an indie

game uh and the rights are up for grabs and he gets the rights to adapt it into a film. About a year later on his channel, a teaser comes out and announcing it to his community. Within a year, which is pretty incredible. >> Later that year in 2023, we get the second teaser and sometime after that is when he starts the conversation about theaters. He knew that this was something that was meant for theaters. His thought

was 50 to 60 theaters. He partners with a distribution company called Centurion. Centurion, the distributor says "Why don't we start with three theaters?" And he says to them, "That would be disrespectful to my audience. I have 38 million people, and and if I do this, Yeah. 99%, 99.9 Yeah. will not be able to take part in this. But it's in December of 2025 that the official trailer is released. That's when tickets go on sale. And this

is when we see the real push begin from his audience. They end up starting a bit of a grassroots campaign to get this movie into more theaters. And Markiplier leaves a comment on that teaser trailer on YouTube. If it's not in your local theater, you there is a way that you can ask for a movie. They have a suggestion line usually, and if you contact the theater and enough people are interested, they will book that movie.

And my audience took that and ran with it really hard. And if you look at the comments on this post, it's pretty incredible. There are people in his community who run theaters and have reached out to the distribution team. There are people who say, "Hey, my dad runs a Regal Cinemas theater." >> Wow. And it starts to sort of steamroll. And there was even a template that his community organized around to send emails to the AMCs

and Regals of the world. And the onslaught of emails was so intense that a lot of those companies and people at the theaters thought it was like spam. Mhm. Because they had a lot of them were template emails. >> Wow. By the time the movie is actually released, it's in roughly 1,500 theaters, and now we're upwards of over 3,000. Wow. And all over the world. So, his community came in in a major way to spread the

word and make sure that there was essentially FOMO on behalf of the theaters, and also proof through the pre-sales. Yeah. In pre-sales, they already did 7 million. Oh my gosh, [laughter] that's insane. Dude that's that's amazing. So Iron Lung did $18 million in opening weekend. And it's now up to 48 million. >> That includes pre-sale? Yeah. In comparison, the RackaRacka Boys, another YouTube group that has gone more traditional, they partnered with a studio with A24, which

again, Markiplier did not have a studio behind this. Their movie Talk to Me did 10 million in opening weekend, so also very good. Bring Her Back, their next film, did 7 million. But I think one of the most interesting things is that if Iron Lung had been released in 2025, it would currently rank as the eighth highest-grossing domestic horror movie in 2025 already. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. I mean, I will just say from a like community

perspective, we went to go see this movie in a pretty, you know, relatively random time, noon on a Thursday, weeks after release. >> Yeah. In a kind of small theater at Universal City in Hollywood, and um there, outside of us, there was 15 other people in the room. Like Also, it was downpouring in LA. Which is actually important because people do not go outside when it rains here. And I've been to the movies in the past

couple months. Like, that's a lot of people in a movie theater for a midday showing weeks after a movie comes out. So, like, this this movie is still pulling in people weeks later around the country. >> [snorts] >> Now, I want to talk about why this was actually successful. There's a number of reasons. Of course, you're listening and watching right now and thinking, "Yeah, his 38 million fans contacted movie theaters and did 7 million in pre-sale."

There's no doubt that that is a big part of the equation. But again, not every creator has that ability to do that type of thing and to activate an audience like that. So, it's worth looking at what are the ingredients of Markiplier and what he's done over the years that contribute to this being even possible. Okay, so let's talk about some of the reasons. I think the first is something I've already touched on a little bit.

The fact that the rights for this game were even up for grabs. Like it is it was a smaller indie horror film. He didn't set out to like tell the Minecraft movie. Mhm. Okay, so it was up for grabs. He was truly passionate about the story and the story happens to take place in a single location inside of this submarine Right. with uh minimal characters. So, his passion for the story of the game met perfectly with

the actual logistics of being able to pull it off. The fact that the entire game takes place in a submarine meant that he could film the entire movie essentially in one location and on his channel he brings you behind the scenes. I'll put it up Yeah, yeah. screen right now, but he shows this box lifted up in the sky in this sound stage and it's being shaken around, which is when you watch the film you see

he's he's being shaken around and that that's the majority of where the entire movie is shot. So, you know, cost of production is capped. It's less than if you have to be in a million different locations shooting all over. Can I tell you what it reminded me of? One of the first things I thought when I watched it. What's that? Bo Burnham's Inside. Yes. Another YouTuber, right? Early stage YouTuber who's like let me work within the

constraints of my room. Yeah. >> Like when I was watching Iron Lung, I was like only a YouTuber would think like this that I can work within the constraints of a room. Yeah. Because that's what Mark does, too, right? He's like sitting in his room a lot. >> Mhm. And he's making he's engaging you for an hour while sitting in his room. When you watch Iron Lung, you'll be like Oh. Oh, look how Look at the

variety of shots. Look at the variety of of moods within this single room. In the beginning I felt like, are we really just going to be in this setting the whole time? Like how's it how's he going to keep this interesting? And you realize he probably had the confidence because he does that. >> Mhm. Yeah. He stays in one setting and keeps it interesting. If you're Markiplier and you have a deep passion to tell this story

on a high scale in theaters, that's actually a pretty good constraint cuz you're able to make production kind of tight, more affordable, but still look like a high production value movie. Yeah, the the one thing I wrote, I took out my iPhone, which by the way, I'm not that guy in a movie to take out his iPhone, but I was doing research watching this movie. >> Unfortunately, we were both that guy during this movie and I

was a little embarrassed. Yeah, I was embarrassed, but I it was there was some reason. Well, we had to film the screen not for piracy purposes just to clarify again. >> you get nervous that they were going to kick us out? >> I got really nervous. I got skittish while I was filming the screen. I was like >> Same. Yeah, someone going to be like, "Sir." Uh And then I was I was thinking about what my

response would be, like I'm here for research. Yeah, no, I'm making a YouTube show about this movie. Yeah, I don't know. You're definitely kicked out. >> Yeah. So, um Okay, the the first thing I wrote down was self-reliance. >> [snorts] >> And I wrote it because I was like, this guy the promise of YouTube and the creator economy was self-reliance in in entertainment. Meaning, you the only thing standing between you and your idea is yourself. Mhm.

That if you have the energy to just make it, film it, edit it, there's nothing else in your way. There's no studio in your way, there's nothing. While I was watching this, I was like, this is the embodiment of self-reliance. This is a dude alone on screen performing in a movie that he is making. >> That's my reason number one is that he made this movie like a YouTube video. >> Yeah. His passion to make it

met perfectly with the feasibility of pulling it off. >> Right. Not to say that it was cheap, but for him >> Yeah. a $3 million budget, 35 days of production Yeah. it was possible when paired with his passion and there were no stakeholders. Yeah. So this was him making a film in the way that he would make a YouTube video and that there was nothing keeping him from doing it the exact way that he wanted to.

>> Exactly. >> So that I think is actually really important. Okay, my second reason this is not his first rodeo. Like it may be his first time on a screen as big as these and these types of theaters, but if you look at his history in 2017, he did a live tour called the Your Welcome Tour and he sold out thousand seat theaters across North America and Europe. And it was like a sketch comedy style tour,

like an interactive type of experience. Thousand seat theaters eight years ago. Basically, it's like that's a serious proof point that not a lot of creators would have. Some creators have it and I think it would be important if you're thinking about working with them on making a film. Right. Like he had it eight years ago to a pretty big degree. Let alone in 2019 and 2022, he made YouTube originals. Mhm. >> He did a heist with

Markiplier and he did Markiplier in space which were at a much higher production value cuz they were in coordination with YouTube. And they were playable movies. So he essentially made three movies for one because he would show you a scene and then he would give you an ultimatum and you could either go left or right. And so he essentially had to make three movies for one. So he has experience acting, working on these types of sets.

And then he also has experience getting his audience to rally around one of his projects. >> Right. Also in 2022, he told his audience that that if they could get his two podcasts number one on the charts, he would start an OnlyFans. >> [laughter] >> Which is an absurd premise. >> Yeah, sure. But within a couple of months, they did. His podcast became number one. He started an OnlyFans for what he called the most tasteful of

nudes. Which I did not look into for the purposes of this project, but I would >> Okay. All right, Jesse has them up right there. There they are. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. >> We can show those. Yeah, I think I think we can show that. I think we can show that. Yeah. I didn't anticipate showing that in the episode. >> Yeah. Uh if you're listening, maybe come on to YouTube or take a look at the

video. And all of the money that he made from uh the the OnlyFans went to charity. Right. >> So, I say that only to say that like he didn't pocket the money from his OnlyFans. >> Yeah. Uh but, that was an instance where he rallied his audience around actually like getting something that he's going to make uh to number one. And that moment with the podcast and the OnlyFans, I actually think is really significant. Because it

speaks to the type of creator that he is. And we've talked about this on the show couple years ago now, probably. But, there are relationship-based creators. >> Mhm. Which we would say is like an Emma Chamberlain or a vlogger. You are there for the relationship. We bring this up often, but she made a video called you totally caught me making soup. >> Yeah. And you only click on that video if you're there for the relationship with

her. That is That is no by no means a sensational idea. Then there are idea-based creators who like a Mr. Beast where last person to take their hand off a Lamborghini. Right. >> You're there for the idea, and he is the host bringing you through it. But, essentially, it is the idea that is getting you in the door, not your expectation that Jimmy is going to share with you something about him personally Right. >> that will

connect you with him. Now, Markiplier fits somewhere in the middle here with what we would call a community-based creator. >> Yeah. Where he has deeply creative ideas, but they are only to satiate his direct community. They are not made for an audience who does not know who he is. >> The other thing I wrote down during the movie is uh participatory media. Meaning like even me being there, even us making this, like we are participating in

the story of Markiplier making a movie. >> Mhm. Because he kind of encourages it. He he makes it a part of the uh experience of being one of his fans or being a fan of his work to participate in it. >> Mhm. And something I've noticed is just this week as I've been looking into um Markiplier, I'm getting so much fan-made content about Markiplier in all of my feeds now. Instagram, uh Twitter, like I opened up

Twitter and the first thing I saw was drawings of Markiplier. And I'm like, oh, this is so interesting because he is a community leader. He's deeply understands that he's not in a relationship where he makes something and you watch it. He's actually making something more like a video game. All of his media is like a video game that you also get to play. Yes, and that is reason number three. He's not making his videos and his

projects for his audience, he's making them with his audience. And when you have a true two-way street, that creates a different level of engagement and opportunity to actually activate a large group of people to go somewhere. It's very different than you know, a creator like, I don't know, the Stokes twins or something. Right. Where like you know, we talked about it on the last episode, the secret room videos. Those are very much entertainment. You are made

to sit down and they're mainly for kids, sit and watch something and then move on to the next video. You're not really interacting with that story. Right. Like you you could get the wrong signal from seeing that like a video like that has over 100 million views. Again, if you're someone in Hollywood, you might be like, oh, of course, great. Like these views will turn into physical attendance or ticket sales and that's just not the case.

It's not true that all views will drive visits and I think the way to tell is how engaged the community is not just not from comments. I'm not talking about comments and likes and shares like not your traditional social. I think I wrote three things that people can use to tell how engaged a community is. Just just quickly. If you're looking at somebody has a lot of views, how can you actually tell if if there's like

a deeply engaged community that's operating in this two-way street. >> Okay. Number one, Reddit community engagement. Is there a Reddit community around this creator and how engaged are they? I think that's like a real telltale sign. It's not a requirement, but it would be a really clear-cut sign that there's like activity and action happening within this community. Number two is kind of what you just mentioned, but I wrote down the simple thumbnail test. Meaning can they

make a simple thumbnail and millions of people click on it? So Markiplier's one of his most recent thumbnails is called it just says my hair is gone and it's just an image of him that's kind of dark. Yeah. 2.6 million views. I think that should immediately signal to you there's something going on here. That's like a deep relationship. Yeah, the less accessible the title and thumbnail, the more that video is a filter for how many people

actually care. You have to be such a specific person to click on this video. That's a real telltale sign of the engagement. >> Can I give an example of something that he did like that? >> Yeah. So he did an entire project, if you're unfamiliar, called Unus Annus in 2019 from 2019 to 2020, which was a brand new channel where he uploaded every single day for 365 days and the story of the channel was that it

will be deleted at the end. And in that year, the channel gained 4.5 million subscribers. It had over 800 million views, and the final live stream had 1.5 million live concurrent viewers. And even I was like, wait, what what was this? Like, this was an ephemeral YouTube channel. >> hearing about this. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And speaking of Reddit, I went to his Reddit, and there was an amazing comment. Someone was like, hey, what what was

this? I wasn't around. I wasn't following him when this happened, but I've heard about it. What was it? And a member of his community came in and said, "It's basically like if you found out that your friend had 1 year to live. How would you spend your time and allocate your time and think about those memories with that friend?" >> That's cool. And this was a difficult project to make 365 videos a year, knowing that you're

going to delete all of that work. That is not something you do because you're hoping it pays you off in 5 years, or that people can still watch it and become members of your audience. That is strictly for the community there and now, in that moment to share something. Why would someone put all that effort into something they were just going to get rid of? They were just going to throw away. And I said, "It'll make

sense when it ends." Because I firmly believe that the entirety of what something is cannot be truly appreciated until it ends. And that to me is the epitome of a community-based creator doing community-based content. >> Yeah. Like, that project, that's why fill theaters and gross $48 million on this movie. So, I also wrote down for the love of the game because uh when we sat down with Anthpo, who's a creator who does these big kind of

viral stunts, uh stuff like uh the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest. He did this experiment called cheeseball man, where he put up posters and created a superhero that ate a jar of cheeseballs in New York City. A lot of the stuff he does is just for the love of the game. Like there's no commercial intent. Like Timothy Chalamet look at that contest did not have a sponsor. It was just like he thought it was cool. And of

course that's >> I'm imagining all the people who haven't heard of cheese ball man knowing like wait, wait, what? Can you can you Yeah, say that explain what that why that matters at all? What? >> [laughter] >> Basically what I'm saying is like of course he has a business. He does advertising. He does brand deals. He recently launched an agency. But like a lot of the stuff he does you can tell and even just out of

his mouth he said it for to us. It's like for the love of the game. It's cuz he just loves it. He thinks it's cool. And I think you know Markiplier what you can feel in a lot of his projects is there's that element of for the love of the game that like he said he's made an unfathomable amount of money now. So at this point like why work hard? At this point why put this much

effort into doing this? Like making a movie's hard. It's cuz he loves it and you can feel that. And I think that is a very very new or unique feeling in the world of creators right now when it feels like most creators are here as a profession now. There is obviously commercial intent when you're watching a creator. I mean even with Mark it's not like there's not. There is of course. But when you get to a

point where you can feel someone's desire to do something when you can when you watch Markiplier cry because of the success of this film on his channel you feel something different as an audience member. And I think that is the there's a purity here that is pretty hard to replicate. Oh sorry. Yeah. I'm just really really happy. And I'm really really grateful. He himself said on the town that it would be hard to replicate. >> Yeah.

But then he also went and called it a win for independent creators. Yeah. It just got me thinking like Okay, if he's such a unique case, who is winning out of this historic sort of case study of Markiplier bringing this film into theaters? I think Markiplier and his community win, number one, right? I actually think it sounds like Centurion wins. Theaters are win Yeah, win. Well, his distribution partner that he cut a 50/50 deal with, they

were probably like We thought this was some indie film. [laughter] Like we're What? >> Yeah. This made $50 million? Yeah. I think they must be Already? Yeah, they must be floored. Uh theaters definitely won. I think the reason why it's a win for creators is cuz, you know, we're still at this point where headlines hit that's like Did you hear about that a YouTuber made a good movie that people watched? You know, and I think that

that is that is an important thing to happen still. Let me read the headline from The Atlantic. >> Yeah. Cuz it speaks to that sentiment perfectly. It just says, "A no-name director to everyone but his 38 million fans." And that headline is important. Like people who read The Atlantic or Yeah. >> see that shared who are like, "Wait, who's this? A YouTuber? What happened?" There's a credibility factor that happens to creators. Now, when it comes to

replicating this, I think you have to think about like what What even needs to be replicated? Like it's not actually the the financial outcome. That's very hard to replicate and you need to have dedicated 24 years of your life to a community in the way that Markiplier did and have the impact on a community that Markiplier did to get that outcome. Yeah. Okay, so that's number one. Like sure, but put your head down and dedicate 24

years of your life into like a passionate craft and you can maybe also have an outcome. Not promised, but you could. >> You also need to make a good film, which is a whole other thing. Let alone having the opportunity. >> Yes. But making something good. >> Yeah. Yeah, I don't try I wouldn't traditionally like a movie like this, but I was I was hooked. >> Yeah. Um Mark, if you're watching this and listening, you are

an exceptional actor. Like I was blown away. I thought creatively everything from like the performance of this film to the look of it to the sound design to the the way the story was dripped out like Did you say dripped out because of all the blood? >> I did. There's a lot of blood. >> There's a lot of drips. Yeah. I the whole thing like this is good. This is very good and I just want to

acknowledge it is hard to make something good. Yeah. It is really hard to make something good. It's very easy to make something mediocre. Very hard to make something good. So I just you know, there's a lot of like analysis we can do on like oh the the how he engaged the community all this but like just want to acknowledge the performance, the craft, the storytelling it's very good. You made a great film. Agreed. Cannot state that

enough. But I think the win is for creators like us to understand that as the the Hollywood system comes towards us, as the opportunities get bigger, as our industry gets bigger, to continue to remember that the thing that made us is self-reliance. That we can do it ourselves. Mhm. And I think he is showing us like this inspires me to go like oh yeah, dude, you're right. The ideas that we feel passionate about we should just

make. You know, that maybe sounds so obvious but that's where YouTube started like >> Is that experience that much better if we bring our audience through it, we bring all of you through it and make something that you feel like you're you're more a part of the story? >> Yeah, we're we're working on a lot of stuff that's behind the scenes and trying to make deals and trying to put stuff together and it's like it it's

awesome and it's cool and it's fun but it's it's it's an old school model where I think the win for creators is the recognition that uh as we all get bigger as we all have bigger budgets, have more dollars to play with, the reminder is it is there for us to make cool projects. There's a Walt Disney quote that I used to look at all the time in my 20s when we first started making videos. And

it said, "We do not make movies to make money. We make money to make more movies." Mhm. And that I think is like the reminder of this Markiplier project is you you just like we are in this for our own freedom of creativity. And it's a reminder that that creativity can potentially go farther and be seen by more people than we previously had thought because the power of the people who are considered gatekeepers is shifting. Yeah

totally. >> The fact that the theaters were as up for grabs as they were, I did not even realize that. Like my assumption when I would walk into an AMC or a Regal is like, "Oh, yeah, the the independent person has almost no ability to decide that they would like to be on these screens." And they are much more up for grabs when you look at how grassroots this movement was. >> Totally. And I'm not saying

if you make things that you should be thinking about how you can get into 1,500 or 3,000 theaters, but even a small theater is up for grabs right now and is available. Convening a group of people to watch your work in person is a validating and unique experience and it's up for grabs. It made me think about the fact that a local theater here in Santa Monica Yeah. reached out to us a couple years ago. >>

Yeah, you're right. And it's a cool old vintage theater and they just said, "Hey, I'm a fan. I watch you guys." And like, you know, we have open nights. Yeah. You know, we want to fill it. And we never did anything with it. And I'm thinking to myself like, yeah, that theater is up for grabs. Right. And what a cool experience we could put on. And physical experiences are are much more interesting right now. I mean,

I'll read a comment from our last video about the world of of of abundance online and how much digital content there is and how AI is creating an exponential world of abundance. Uh this is from Mark Miller. He said, "This episode really makes you think about the future of content creators. The idea that scarcity and human connections will become the true added value in an era of AI generated abundance is an extremely interesting perspective. Great video,

Colin and Samir." Another one from Melanie Ball, "The offline world has already begun. More people are getting into it. I think with AI content, that's what's pushing people to disconnect. This is a pendulum moment towards IRL." And then Mitch and his van, "When authenticity can be duplicated and uploaded, then it seems to me that the only alternative is to go live and offer regular meetups with your audience." So, I'll pause there, but like basically, people reacting

to our last video about this increase in AI generated content, increase in just abundance of digital content, and saying opportunities to get out and be with other like-minded people. Like, we should not overlook the fact that if you went to Iron Lung, even today when you're in the theater, I was looking around. I was like, "Should we just talk to some people?" >> of how I felt, too. I was like, "Oh, the movie's playing, so I

can't I'm already on my phone, so I shouldn't interrupt you, but I kind of wanted to be like >> But you're you're you're in on it. Yeah. You're part of a community, right? And that feels good that you're like, "Oh, we're all here cuz we're into the same thing." Mhm. You don't you don't really Maybe you feel like that with like when I was younger and you go see like Jackass. Yeah. The MTV movie. >> feels

like it's made for you and your generation. >> Yeah. But yeah, if I go to Mission Impossible, I don't look at the guy next to me and I'm like, "Yeah, man. Like Dude. You like this, too?" >> [laughter] >> Yeah. There's There's a There's a deeply human feeling to being in the Iron Lung movie right now. And like, I'd recommend you guys go check it out. Like, if you're fans of YouTube and fans of of this

world at all, like go watch Iron Lung. Go support it. It's like it's really cool to be in that theater and look around and be like, this is dope. Like, that's just Mark on the screen. Like, that's it. >> guy from YouTube. >> that guy from YouTube. And acting and looking really cool. Yeah, it's it's uh it's insane. I would say the other place where we are seeing this happen a little bit and maybe a bit

of like adjacent or or tangential, but like I thought about retail stores and I thought about that time we went to Walmart with Jimmy, with Mr. Beast, and looked at his Feastables uh uh layouts like in in the aisles. >> space. >> His shelf space and how into shelf space he got and how much he learned the amazing distribution of physical shelf space. Right? And how how different that was from digital space. Yeah, his eyes you

could see his eyes lit up with the opportunity to be a part of people's lives. Exactly. >> In real life. In real life. And how different that was, that he became a part of again something that was scarce. He wanted, you know, different spaces in the Walmart. He wanted the end caps. He wanted spaces that were reserved for other people because they're scarce. And I think um that's the thing about >> He wanted all the views,

the same way he wants all the views. Exactly, yeah. But he wanted the right ones and I just think um movie theaters are are also like that. They're kind of like the retail stores for content, right? Like they're the old model of like the the the physical thing, but they're not so they're not so far gone. Like we are craving that physical connection and that opportunity to be in a room, look around and go like we're

part of something. And I think Markiplier understanding, that's at the center of his content is that you look around and you go, I'm a part of something. >> Mhm. If you know, you know. So, that's the difference. That is a dramatic difference. Like as we've said before, views are becoming available online. You can get You can figure out how to get views. Now, doing that over 25 years, that's not easy, but like you can figure out

how to get views right now. Um communicating a passion and and building a community that is regularly engaged with each other, that's different. >> Those are few and far between. >> That There's only a few creators who can do that. >> To that scale. To that scale. >> Yeah, there are a lot of creators with communities. Yeah. But of that scale that could make this impact, I don't know how many there are. Yeah, there's not many.

>> very unique and cool case study. Yeah. Okay. Now, this also made me think about this Jacksepticeye clip where he's talking about the Mount Rushmore of YouTube. Made me ask the question, is Markiplier on the Mount Rushmore of YouTube? Should we see Jacksepticeye's? Yeah, let's watch. Mount Rushmore of YouTubers. Ooh. I mean, we got to put Felix up there just because he put let's playing on the map for a lot of us and the reason why

many of us are even doing it as a career now is because of him. Smosh are on there as well for the exact same reasons. >> [music] >> They got in and started doing YouTube and now, again, lucky enough to call all those people my friends. I think they're an incredible channel and they went from like amazing to like, maybe not so good to now like better than they've ever been. I Weirdly enough, I think I

would put Ryan Higa on [music] the Mount Rushmore. I I don't think I ever really talk about him that much, but I think for what he did for the platform back then. >> [music] >> Again, it's those earlier people who really just put YouTube on the map and were doing it when maybe sometimes weren't even getting paid to do it. They just did it for the love of the game. And up there as well is Jenna

Marbles. Just right up until she quit, she was still incredible. I think I would like to see her upload again cuz I think it [music] was very joyous to watch and I watched basically every single video that was coming out, but I miss that sort of like fun, goofy, do whatever you want, like turn on the camera and go energy and that's sort of like the light in the darkness to be cliche about it, but it

was definitely it's just like turn off your brain, have a good time, forget about what's going on in the world kind of channel. Wow, so he went way back. He went way back, but I mean Mount Rushmore goes way back. >> That's true. That's how that works. >> Yeah, that's how that works. [laughter] It goes pretty far. I'm going to probably put some people from modern era on it, but yeah, you're right. It does It's funny

he mentions PewDiePie in the context of bringing Let's Play to YouTube where it's like you actually look at it like the most successful YouTubers are the gaming YouTubers and a lot of them are the Let's Play YouTubers, the ones who built a relationship within that participatory media world. So with very long-form content. >> Yeah, I mean we would all have such a different Mount Rushmore and of course for like our own influences, but if we're looking

at the platform like it is hard to overlook Markiplier here. Yeah. I mean after looking at him more now, it makes perfect sense that he would be. Yeah. Yeah, I'd have to put Rhett and Link, but I would prefer to put them together. >> Together. They're one. They're I'd like to He said Smosh. Okay, so Smosh. Yeah, Rhett and Link I think can be one. Yeah. >> I agree with that. It's it'd be very hard for

me to suggest that Casey Neistat's not on there. I think he in in influenced an entire generation on the platform. Jenna Marbles was one that I didn't expect, but I actually think is important. Super important. >> Personally when I saw the Jenna Marbles face video, that's what made me realize I could upload to YouTube. >> The epitome of having a constraint, like being in a room or being in a single frame and making the most out

of that frame. >> Again, that was like self-reliance. It was like that's it. If you're good, make something and do it with whatever you have. If you have a MacBook computer and and that's the camera you have, no problem. It's tough for me cuz there's there's people that I love uh who have stopped or have changed or have evolved. Like Elle Mills, like Emma Chamberlain that like have made a massive impact, but I feel like to

be on the Mount Rushmore, do you need to be consistently uploading still to this day? No. You don't? >> who are on Mount Rushmore aren't even alive. Look, man, [laughter] I don't like looking at Mount Rushmore that often, but that's a good point. Yeah. I think Emma could be on there. I think uh it'd be tough to also say that MKBHD isn't on there. Yeah. >> MKBHD is a pretty prolific creator. Um it's not easy to

only have five slots. Like, that's not easy. All right. Well, we probably did more than five and Yeah. But yeah, I'm curious what you guys think uh in terms of your Mount Rushmore of YouTube. I'm I'm going to put Yes Theory on there. Yeah. Because I think they are the best, least talked about channel I agree with that. >> on YouTube. I'm very biased. They're good friends. But yeah, if you have your Mount Rushmore We we

didn't do this exercise correctly. We just named creators we like. Yeah, that's unfair. The tough you have to pick four. We did not do that. >> Yeah, we didn't do that. Yeah, we didn't follow our own advice. And definitely go see Iron Lung. It is It is a very good film and a honestly a huge win for independent creativity. And and a reminder that if you have an idea, just make it. All right. See you next

week. >> [music]