The Iron Lung Box Office Controversy, Explained

Markiplier Studios

It was a busy weekend to close out January at the box office. Not only did Sam Raimi's new horror movie "Send Help" come in at number one with $20 million, but YouTuber Markiplier's indie sensation "Iron Lung" was right on its heels with $17.8 million, straight-up shocking the industry. However, a little bit of controversy emerged over the film's box office reporting, although it mostly boiled down to a simple misunderstanding.

Taking to TikTok on Sunday, Markiplier, aka Mark Fischbach, shared an observation when looking at the daily box office numbers over the weekend via The Numbers, an online box office database and site for reporting on related matters. He explained that, after appearing atop the charts on Friday, his movie disappeared from the charts on Saturday and Sunday. Or, at the very least, it appeared to. Here's what he had to say about the matter:

"This is on Friday. I'm number one. I milked it a lot. I said it. It was very funny. I knew that Sam Raimi's movie ['Send Help'] was going to pass me eventually by the end of the weekend, but I was like, 'Ha ha I'm number one.' But then, I didn't see this yesterday, so here's Saturday, right? I swear I was on this list, but 'Iron Lung' isn't here anymore. There's no numbers for 'Iron Lung.' They took me off the chart."

"I thought hey, maybe that's a fluke. Maybe there's something wrong," he added, explaining that the same thing happened on Sunday.

Come Monday morning, "Iron Long" was at number two with $17.8 million for the weekend not only on The Numbers but on Box Office Mojo as well. Nothing fishy was going on, though, nor was the industry trying to get in the way of Markiplier's success.

Markiplier Studios

"Iron Lung" was indeed the number one movie on Friday with an estimated $9 million haul, before being overtaken by "Send Help" as the weekend unfolded. Elsewhere, the documentary "Melania" flopped in a distant third place.

A number of people reached out to The Numbers regarding the matter, as Markipler has 38 million subscribers on YouTube, and his TikTok got a lot of traction, with people wondering what was going on. "Cowards removed Markiplier's 'Iron Lung' from the box office chart," X/Twitter user MoongymVA wrote, for example. But The Numbers soon released a statement on the matter, explaining that it's all part of the standard practice around box office reporting. Here's what the company had to say about the matter:

"Over the weekend, we didn't receive official estimates for 'Iron Lung' from Markiplier. The numbers we posted were industry estimates, based on trusted sources, including reporting in Deadline and Variety. We posted a weekend estimate at 8.34am. We didn't have daily estimates until around 12.30pm on Sunday, and posted them as soon as we had them."

"Unfortunately, we ranked all movies in the Saturday and Sunday daily charts, even though we hadn't got estimates for 'Iron Lung,'" the site added. "That may have created a false impression that we had stopped reporting on the film. We regret the error."

It's important to point out that Markiplier self-distributed "Iron Lung." So, he and his representatives were responsible for reporting the actual box office numbers. The Numbers and everyone else in the industry had to rely, instead, on estimates. Infamously, Netflix also doesn't report box office numbers. So, when "KPop Demon Hunters" topped the box office last year, it was all based on estimates, much like the situation with "Iron Lung."

Markiplier Studios

One of my main jobs is serving as a box office reporter and analyst. I regularly use both The Numbers and Box Office Mojo as sources and have previously laid out in detail how box office works for those who may not know the ins and outs. Both databases regularly update their numbers throughout the weekend, with some movies appearing on the charts and others not. It's all based on what data comes in and what's reported, but the databases are always updated once the information arrives.

On The Numbers' website, green text means the number included is an estimate. Black text means it's a confirmed, final number. To that end, The Numbers clarified that it was working with Markiplier and his team to get the actual numbers and update them on its site:

"We're working to get actual numbers from Markiplier, and have reached out to his team. If we receive numbers from them, we will mark them as actuals on the chart. If we don't, we will continue to mark them in green text, indicating that they are industry estimates. For our final charts, we only report numbers reported to us, and all of our actuals come directly from the distributing studio."

"Perhaps most importantly, congratulations to Markiplier on an incredible achievement," The Numbers concluded. "We're excited to see a film like this bring people into theaters, and wish him all the best for a continued strong run!"

So, there we have it. No funny business or anything like that. Mark Fischbach just didn't understand how box office reporting works since this isn't his area of expertise, and it caused a little confusion. Simple as that.

"Iron Lung" is in theaters now.