Hollywood is hungry for new breakthrough films and talent. Is YouTube the next place to mine for popular IP and filmmaking stars?
YouTuber-helmed horror hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms” beat Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” this past weekend in ticket sales.
They build on an earlier box office darling, “Iron Lung,” from YouTuber “Markiplier” (Mark Edward Fischbach), and show how a digital creator with a small budget can draw movie theater crowds.
Hollywood is beginning to make bets on YouTube creators, and industry insiders say horror films like these, as well as comedy, will lead the way because they’re cheaper to produce and can be box-office draws.
Large-scale investments remain rare due to the limited number of creators with proven directing and writing experience. In making the leap to film, follower counts don’t always translate to Hollywood success, said Kai Gayoso, a managing partner at Range Media.
Talent and storytelling chops carry more weight.
Digital media has produced TV stars like Issa Rae and hits like “Broad City.” As more filmmakers emerge from social media, executives expect new ideas and franchises to originate online.
“We need more turns at bat,” said Adam Wescott, CEO of Mind Chatter Media, a digital media company and content studio.
Business Insider asked agents, media executives, YouTube editors and creators, and other industry insiders who could get a crack at the big screen next. Their picks represent a mix of people known for their work in comedy, scripted, and more.
One thing is clear — Hollywood’s next filmmakers may not be the biggest names now, but have been developing characters, worlds, and directing skills online for years.
The establishment players
The most obvious names are creators who have already crossed over to Hollywood with streaming deals.
Fox Corporation’s Tubi courted Kinigra Deon, behind scripted YouTube shows like “The Hairshop,” to direct the film “Sundown” this year through a deal with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat. Gray Fagan released a high-school comedy, “Senior Prank,” on Tubi and is working on a comedy horror. TikTok comedian Kelon Campbell, who goes by Psyiconic, had a film based on his character, Terri Joe, debut on the streamer in 2026.
Then there’s Mark Phillips, who built a comedy universe in RDC World and has co-developed a scripted series for HBO with Issa Rae. The YouTube studio Almost Friday, born on Instagram as “Friday Beers,” is developing a comedy series for FX called “Last Night Was a Movie.”
“We’re starting to have more and more conversations about film,” Almost Friday’s president, Andrew Kenward, told Business Insider. “We want to be pretty targeted and really rally around a thing or two if we’re going to go pursue something there because the life cycle of those projects is much longer.”
It’s hard to overlook the creators who’ve built online universes and developed their own big production studios, too.
Think of prolific young adult (YA) YouTube creators like Alan Chikin Chow, whose signature show, “Alan’s Universe,” is also on Amazon’s Prime Video, Roku, and Tubi. Morality tale-maker Dhar Mann, who has a Samsung TV channel and a micro drama production deal with Fox, could also break into family-friendly films.
The independents scoring awards and festival nods
“YouTube is the next Sundance,” Max Reisinger, CEO of media incubator Creator Camp, told Business Insider.
Baron Ryan, known online as American Baron, directed “Two Sleepy People,” which showed at about 100 US theaters this winter and was recently picked up for distribution in Europe. It was the first feature film to emerge from Creator Camp.
Underscore Talent, which represents a slew of creators, including comedian Kareem Rahma — who recently launched a new show with YouTube — has comedy actor and writer Pooja Tripathi under its wing. Tripathi’s scripted show, “Brooklyn Coffee Shop,” has nearly 500,000 Instagram followers and scored a spot in Tribeca Festival’s creator showcase. This year, Tribeca is also highlighting Jeb McCormick, the brains behind the Fallen Media show “15 Second Film,” fast-paced short films for social media.
“The narrative has been social media is coming for traditional,” Range Media’s Gayoso said. “We’re landing in a much more even place now. You can launch TV shows off of short-form platforms. Movies were always going to be next.”
Christian Del Grosso, a digital comedy creator, just directed his first feature, “Boot Lake,” an indie thriller. Sarah Bahbah, a Palestinian artist and creator based in Los Angeles, was mentored via the Netflix Series Director Program in 2025. TikToker Max Zavidow makes dark comedies and surreal short films like his Webby-nominated project, “Coming Home.”
Zavidow said studios should look for creators whose content is “so good and the voice is so distinct, and the style is so cohesive, that even if you take them out of their medium, they can still thrive because they have a very potent sense of self.”
Kariza Santos, who used to make traditional media projects, built an audience of around 1 million subscribers on YouTube, making cinematic vlogs of her life that she releases in seasons. Tristan Tales, a writer and TikToker, has a YA series, “Lostlings,” that’s bound for streaming and linear in the fall after a YouTube release.
Other creators are being tapped for larger projects based on their experience making TV-style series, which could serve as an on-ramp to feature films. Matthew Patrick, known online as MatPat, the creator behind YouTube network Theorist, recently signed a studio deal for behind-the-camera work.
Being popular on YouTube doesn’t guarantee a box office win
Before Hollywood studios go running after every creator with hopes of ticket sales and endless IP opportunities, not every creator with millions of fans is a guaranteed box-office hit.
Creators have tried their hand at pivoting from phone screens to the big screen before, with mixed degrees of success. For instance, Ryan Kaji’s “Ryan’s World” (2024) or Dude Perfect’s “The Hero Tour” (2025) had muted theatrical releases.
The latest creator-made films are changing that tune.
“I don’t think this is the gold rush for taking every big creator with a massive audience and saying, ‘Let’s make a movie,'” Gayoso said.
It is, however, an opportunity for studios to sweep up young talent with a knack for good storytelling and the ability to achieve big things with small budgets.
“When you go to YouTube, you’re wearing all the hats. You’re your own producer and writer and director and makeup artist and wardrobe,” Santos said. “You learn how to just do everything.”
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