YouTuber Markiplier thinks more creators can break into Hollywood without giving up control.
The 37-year-old put it to the test earlier this year, when he wrote, directed, and starred in the film “Iron Lung.” He funded the movie’s low 7-figure budget himself, and it became a box-office hit that grossed over $50 million worldwide. His takeaway was that more creators should try to enter traditional media on their own, so long as they’re ready to learn and wear many hats — and take on their own financial risk.
“In Hollywood, it is kind of like a foregone conclusion that you’ll have to give up all control to be able to do anything,” the YouTuber, whose real name is Mark Fischbach, told Business Insider. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t think that should be.'”
A decade ago, when social media was still an emergent format, many influencers viewed a TV show deal or a movie role as a sign they’d made it. Content creators like Liza Koshy and Bretman Rock signed on to do TV shows, but YouTube success didn’t always translate to TV ratings, and the results were mixed. For every web series that became a TV darling, like Comedy Central’s “Broad City,” there was a project that stalled out and was canceled, such as NBC’s late-night show from YouTuber Lilly Singh.
YouTube’s gains in recent years have flipped the creator-to-TV pipeline. YouTube has become the top destination on US TV screens, reaching over 14% market share and crushing competitors like Netflix and Disney, according to Nielsen. Former TV stars like Don Lemon, Alton Brown, and Tucker Carlson are building large audiences as independent creators on YouTube and other platforms.
The shift in audience to YouTube has given its top creators more power relative to Hollywood, said Fischbach, who has nearly 40 million subscribers.
“YouTubers as a conglomerate are this powerful entity that hold sway and a lot of eyeballs are always on them,” he said.
Creators have power, but distributing a film in theaters or selling a TV show is a different skillset entirely. Fischbach thinks creators, who are used to mastering new formats and come from a DIY culture, can learn what they need to.
“Learning things is the most effective way to do more,” he said. “I’m playing catch-up all the time, but the more I think about it ahead of time, the more I learn beforehand, the better it’ll be.”
That doesn’t mean it’s not difficult.
Fischbach said even offering a digital version of “Iron Lung” on YouTube — his native platform — has come with its own set of headaches.
“Even with my exclusivity deal with YouTube for distribution digitally, there’s a lot that I had to learn for even setting up with their system,” he said. “It’s not like YouTube where you can just upload a video.”
Successfully pushing through the busy work and other industry red tape was part of what he wanted to prove.
“I felt like it was symbolically important to carry it from start to finish” and “show that it could be done,” he said.
He thinks other creators can pull off the same feat if properly motivated, particularly as industry players like AMC Theaters offer new ways for independent stars like Taylor Swift to release movies in theaters.
“There are a lot of creators out there that have the ability to take hold of a project and steer it correctly with their own vision,” he said. “They have to expect a lot more out of themselves, and they have to do a lot more work, but at the end of the day, it’ll be their vision, and it’ll be something unique that only they have created.”
That said, Hollywood is littered with over a century of would-be movie moguls who thought they had the perfect idea, and there have been plenty of creator projects — even recently — that have failed to translate a massive social audience into another medium.
For Markiplier, taking on the challenge, even with real financial risk, is part of what drives him creatively.
“I really find purpose in the creative process itself,” he said, noting he’s not trying to step aside and hand over his business to an outside team.
“My objective is not to become an empire,” he added. “When I’m done, my YouTube channel will be done. It doesn’t go any farther than that, mostly just because I love making things.”
