Move over Star Wars. Sci-fi comedy Lazer Team has already sold more than 8,000 pre-sale tickets without a single shred of Hollywood hype.
And while you may not have heard of it, the internet certainly has.
The film is the crowd-funded effort from the American pioneer of video game entertainment, Rooster Teeth.
The Aussie fan base of the group, which has over 25 million YouTube subscribers, is using local cinema-on-demand platform Tugg to bring Lazer Team to the big screen.
Rooster Teeth started in 2003 as a group of Texan university students making online skits out of video games and has transformed into a fully-fledged production company which views HBO and Netflix as content competitors.
Nearly 40,000 fans worldwide ploughed $2.5 million into helping Rooster Teeth make Lazer Team, its first movie.
One Australian devotee even pledged $10,000 to receive an executive producer credit.
Outside of the United States, Australian supporters donated the most to the film's making, warranting a red-carpet premiere with cast and crew in Sydney on January 22.
With such a huge audience, the film has more than 70 screenings across the country despite having no studio backer.
Instead, fans have used a new distribution model, Tugg, which allows people to hold one-off showings at their local cinema.
With the screenings promoted on social media, all that's required is a minimum pre-sale of 50 tickets, a demand level Lazer Team has far exceeded.
"Every capital city has got multiple screenings with the biggest ones, 500, 400 seat theatres, all sold out and other ones being added," Tugg Australia chief executive David Doepel told AAP.
Lazer Team has become Tugg's biggest movie on record, with Mr Doepel describing it as the perfect example of an audience elevating a niche work.
"The industry has been waiting for stories like this where we've translated a really passionate, devoted subscriber base from the small screen to the big screen and everyone benefits."
The film kicks off Tugg's second year in Australia with a bang. At least 30 more films - ranging from documentaries to film festival picks - are slated for the big screen in the next few months.
