The Iron Lung movie is scary — for audiences and for Hollywood

But Fischbach’s extensive word-of-mouth campaign persuaded theaters it was worth taking a risk on an indie film from an unknown director with no studio backing, and Iron Lung opened in thousands of theaters on Jan. 30, rocketing to a $20 million opening weekend and a #2 spot in the box-office rankings. Early in the weekend, it seemed like it might come in at #1, outpacing Send Help, a horror-thriller-comedy from a major director (Spider-Man and Evil Dead veteran Sam Raimi) working with a major star (Rachel McAdams) and a major studio (20th Century Studios), all of which mean major marketing money.