Popular YouTube Series ‘The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act’ Is Coming to Theaters — and Already Breaking Records for Fathom

At first glance, “The Amazing Digital Circus” doesn’t seem like anyone’s idea of a box office smash. A surreal and dark independent animated series produced by Australian company Glitch, the online series plays like a more colorful version of Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” following a group of humans trapped in a virtual reality simulation where they’re tormented by the erratic ringmaster AI Caine and struggle to maintain their sanity. It’s dark, strange, and heavily existential — and has a gigantic online fanbase that’s turning it into a theatrical hit.

On June 4, Fathom Entertainment will release “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act,” a compilation of the show’s eighth episode and its previously unreleased ninth and final installment, in U.S. theaters. The release already broke presale records for Fathom upon its April 10 release, and IndieWire can exclusively report that ticket sales for the limited engagement have now surpassed $7.5 million. In addition, the number of theaters carrying the release has more than doubled since first launch, going from approximately 900 theaters to crossing 2,100 North American theaters. Fathom has also announced that an exclusive collectible popcorn bucket and beverage cup will be made available at select participating theaters nationwide.

Fathom Entertainment CEO Ray Nutt told IndieWire in an interview that the company’s interest in “The Amazing Digital Circus” came from researching the show’s massive online success, such as the 1.2 billion views the first eight episodes have amassed on YouTube. In addition, the show hits several sweet spots for Fathom, with their animated releases, such as the annual Studio Ghibli Fest, proving some of their most lucrative events; their biggest theatrical release ever was a 2024 rerelease of “Coraline,” which grossed $34 million. In recent years, the company has also found considerable success with episodic events; their previous presale record holder was “Christmas with The Chosen,” a compilation of episodes from the Christian TV show “The Chosen.”

“We’ve been for the right episodic to do what we did with ‘The Chosen’ and and this came about, and it just kept percolating,” Nutt told IndieWire. “And the research just kept telling us this was the right thing.”

Glitch Productions, which produces “The Amazing Digital Circus,” was founded in 2017 by brothers Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul. The studio began by producing content through the technique of Machinima, where video game or computer graphics engine footage is edited together to create a coherent narrative; their first release “SMG4,” is a sketch show that uses models from “Mario” games as its foundation.

Kevin Lerdwichagul, who serves as the studio’s CEO, told IndieWire that when “The Amazing Digital Circus” premiered on YouTube in 2023 and quickly became a word-of-mouth hit, it quickly helped the studio to expand along with it. At the time of the show’s release, it employed around 20 to 25 artists; the show’s success has allowed the company to hire over 100 artists to work on its various other projects.

“We had no idea what we were in for just before we dropped it,” Lerdwichagul told IndieWire. “It was just something that we really wanted to make and we had a lot of fun doing it, and we discovered so much, but ever since it dropped, it exploded in popularity. it gave us the means to make even more shows, and grow the studio, and hire more artists.”

Lerdwichagul began pursuing theatrical distribution of the finale to “The Amazing Digital Circus” late last year, and began talking to Fathom and other distributors about options for release. He estimates the program will be released in around 5,000 theaters in 90 countries, which he described as only around 40 or 50 percent of the countries that wanted to do it. Because Glitch is a YouTube-based company, it didn’t have a distribution arm before the release, and Lerdwichagul said they essentially had to build one and learn of all the policies, rules, and regulations that went into distribution overnight.

The success of “The Last Act” is part of an ongoing trend of theatrical releases originating from niche online communities finding success. “Iron Lung,” a horror film directed by YouTuber Markiplier, grossed $23 million upon its release in January. This month A24 will release “Backrooms,” a film based on director Kane Parson’s YouTube CreepyPasta series, which is on track for a strong opening. Lerdwichagul said these works can translate their success from the internet to theaters because they know how to directly engage with fanbases and earn their loyalty.

“Me and my brother, we literally grew up being in fandoms ourselves, right? We were part of multiple anime fandoms growing up, and we knew how the relationship connection that fans would have to a show or any IP would be, and because we grew up in that kind of environment, we understood the internet really well,” Lerdwichagul said. “We kind of created that community and fandom through our shows, through Glitch itself, and once you have that community, being able to present them with a theatrical opportunity like this, or any event, becomes a lot easier. It’s a very, very easy sell for them. I kind of knew that it would do well. I didn’t know it would do this well, the size and passion of this community always surprises me.”

Although the theatrical release has been widely successful, there has been some backlash to the event amongst fans of the show, largely owing to the time window. While the episodes will premiere in theaters on June 4, they won’t arrive on YouTube until June 13, leaving some fans — especially international fans in territories where it isn’t playing at all — liable to getting plot details of the finale spoiled. Complaints among fans online were widespread enough that Lerdwichagul released a statement on social media addressing the criticism.

Lerdwichagul told IndieWire that he anticipated and understood why there would be some blowback from fans, and during negotiations with distributors, he had to negotiate down from a gap of two months between the theatrical and online release to two weeks; a push from Glitch to get it down to one week proved unsuccessful. Certain countries had laws requiring a longer months-long exclusivity between the theatrical and online releases, forcing Glitch to abandon efforts to find distribution in those territories.

“Two weeks is still, in internet time, that’s a long time,” Lerdwichagul told IndieWire. “But I knew for a fact that doing this would open so many doors, not just for Glitch but for the wider animation industry and for YouTube creators. Any YouTube creator can actually see this and say, ‘Oh, it is possible, going from a YouTube web series to the big screen in a really global and big way.’ And I knew the risks, and I knew what would happen. I knew the communication, what that would look like with our fans. But ever since I dropped that message, and I was just completely transparent, and I always try to be, I think the fans get it. They understand what we’re trying to do here, and they’re happy. And I think the biggest way we’re trying to help with this is just trying to get into as many theaters as legally possible.”

In terms of what the doors that “The Last Act” will open for Glitch looks like, Lerdwichagul says he is hoping the success of the release will pave the way for the company to explore more theatrical events in the future. He described “The Last Act” as proof that the “traditional world and the internet world” can be successfully melded, and that theatrical and in-person events still have their place despite his company’s online origins.

“I genuinely believe that the future of the entertainment industry will be in person, Physical events or communal events where people can actually see and touch and hear things in person ” Lerdwichagul said. “Especially in this digital AI age, there’s just so much of that stuff now that I feel like the idea of going somewhere in person to watch something is actually going to be have a higher value to it.”

“The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act” premieres in theaters June 4. The series is streaming on YouTube and Netflix.