There’s no denying that Showmax is one of the best homegrown products South Africa has seen in years. Much of that praise deservedly goes to the streamer’s new partners — Comcast’s NBC Universal — a prolific figure within the media entertainment industry. Showmax, to its merit, lowered prices, refreshed the app and put a whole lot more content on there. And now, it’s the first streamer in South Africa to get its hands on Barbenheimer.
If you spent the better part of 2023 under a rock (we get it, Tears of the Kingdom was pretty good), you might’ve missed a couple of things. The Titanic’s death toll rose, Jeremy Renner was run over by a snowplough and Barbenheimer became a household name. You know, the pop culture event that resuscitated cinema’s moulding corpse. We likely won’t ever see anything quite like it again. (Until it lands on Showmax in May, at least).
Now I am become Showmax, bringer of Barbenheimer
While grabbing two of the most iconic films — Barbie and Oppenheimer — of 2023, nay the past decade is certainly impressive, Showmax is upping the feat, turning May into an extremely busy month for the streamer. This comes after it already added a few of 2023’s other big hitters such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, and The Super Mario Bros Movie. Oh, and Fast X is in there, too.
First up is Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s epic… biopic that proved to be 2023’s third highest-grossing film and the winner of seven Oscars. You can check out our review of Oppenheimer to hold you over until the 6 May streaming date. If it’s this weekend you’re interested in, Mr. Bones 3: Son of Bones lands on Friday, 3 May.
While it would have been, for lack of a better word, cool, for Showmax to debut both Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day, the stars just didn’t align. Whether that’s due to streaming rights or simply a desire to get Oppenheimer out and about (and earning views) as soon as possible, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, earning the title of the highest-grossing action comedy film of all time, will land on Wednesday, 22 May.
