Oldest Grandson is a fan of video games and of video game adjacent internet personalities. There is a guy named Markiplier (well, technically that’s an alias) who has made a fortune playing video games on his YouTube channel and currently has something like thirty-seven million followers. I’ve only ever watched a couple of minutes of his content and must confess I don’t see the attraction. I guess it’s because I’m old.
Anyway, this guy decided to make a horror movie using his own money and then put it on 3,000 movie screens. It cost him about $3 million to make. And on its first weekend it’s made more than $18 million.
Now here’s the thing. In Hollywood the catering budget for a movie that makes $18 million on its first weekend would cost more than $3 million. Anyone who would be employed to open a movie of that size would make at least $5 million in Hollywood. So just based on scale any movie made for less than $3 million is in a completely different league from Hollywood. This movie couldn’t fail with the built in audience it has and almost any Hollywood movie can’t help but fail. Even Forbes magazine is touting the new entertainment model that “influencers” like Markiplier has pioneered with his movie success.
So, this is the third movie I’ve heard of that made a bunch of money because someone with tens of millions of followers on line self-financed it and got his people to buy tickets. Does this show us the future or is this just a blip while the streaming giants kill off or buy up Hollywood? Maybe it’s a little bit of both. Markiplier would never get his movie made by a Hollywood studio. And Netflix and Amazon are frantically looking for content that won’t be ignored by the Zoomers. I think what we’re beginning to see is a realization that creative types and Silicon Valley are going to have to blow up the Hollywood model with its bloated budgets and maniacal dependence on poorly written sequels of old intellectual properties. They’re going to have to forget about making crap like “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” or “Star Wars 37: Search for Obi Wan’s Lesbian Aunt.”
The kids around today want to watch stuff that speaks to them. Some of it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to old people like myself. But it doesn’t have to. What they don’t want is corporate slop disguised as sequels to movies that their grandparents watched as kids. And you really can’t blame them. So next Saturday I’ll be going with Oldest Grandson to see “Iron Lung.” And I’ll leave my expectations at the door and watch it with an open mind. Maybe I’ll love it or hate it or just feel kind of confused. But I’ll get a chance to see what the future looks like. And at the very least I know there won’t be a girl-boss character. Apparently, Markiplier Has 90% of the character face time in the movie. And I’ve decided I’m going to splurge on the large popcorn. With extra butter.