Showmax: Watch us for the biggest blockbusters

We’re entering the holiday season, and if you’re looking for the best bang-for-your-buck streaming service for blockbuster Hollywood movies, it pays to go local. 

There’s a candyland of fun on Showmax, stuffed with bright, colourful treats like Ryan Gosling’s absurdly enjoyable stuntman action film The Fall Guy, and Dev Patel’s undiscovered martial arts action gem, Monkey Man. Family time begins in the first week of December, with the musical comedy Wonka.

And for those who just want to see stuff go boom after a long, hard slog of a year, Christmas Eve delivers A Quiet Place Day One.

Putting audience fun first saw Showmax beat all global challengers to win Best Television/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa, while a user-friendly interface won Showmax Entertainment App of the Year at the 2024 Stuff App Awards.

But viewers don’t have to trust the judges. After these top four blockbusters, we’ve listed some of the best-loved Hollywood movie franchises to explore on Showmax right now.

The Fall Guy

Ryan Gosling (Barbie) plays Colt Seaver, the stunt double for action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Colt has to use his stunt skills for real when he’s pulled into a conspiracy after Tom goes missing while working on Metalstorm, a film helmed by Colt’s ex-girlfriend Jody (Emily Blunt).

Watch the trailer: The Fall Guy

Director David Leitch (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) started his career on the other side of the camera – as Brad Pitt’s stunt double on Fight Club. He brings all his insider knowledge to this larger-than-life action-comedy-romance inspired by the ’80s series of the same name, which centred on a stuntman-turned-bounty hunter.

For the curious and obsessed, Showmax also has the documentary series Action, which reveals how The Fall Guy team created their spectacular stunts.

Monkey Man

Bollywood meets Bruce Lee in actor-director Dev Patel’s (Chappie and The Newsroom S1-3) martial arts action film. A man named Kid (Dev) works as a masked wrestler under the thumb of shady fight promoter Tiger (Sharlto Copley, District 9, Chappie, Ted K).

But he has a second job as a waiter at Kings, a brothel and drug den disguised as a social club, where he’s on a secret mission to take down corrupt police official Rana (Sikandar Kher). 

Watch the trailer: Monkey Man

Dev compares the social layers that Kid has to navigate in Kings to both India’s caste system, and the classic East Asian martial arts movies he grew up with – like Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. “He has to work his way up the pagoda to fight Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

“And that amazing sequence at the end where the bosses get tougher and bigger and badder,” Dev hints.

Coming Soon

Wonka

Family-friendly musical comedy inspired by Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Directed and co-written by Paul King (Paddington), with Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant (Two Weeks Notice) as an Oompa Loompa. 

Watch the trailer: Wonka

Get ready for the untold story as the young Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet, who returns to Showmax in Dune Part 1 and Part 2 from Wednesday,1 January) sets out to revolutionise London’s stuffy confectionery establishment with the help of a plucky foster kid named Noodle (Calah Lane), and his madly creative inventions like Hoverchocs, Hair Repair Éclairs and Giraffe-milk macarons. 

First on Showmax. Stream Wonka from Thursday, 6 December. 

A Quiet Place: Day One

Sam (Lupita Nyong’o), a terminally ill cancer patient, gets trapped in Manhattan with her cat, Frodo, and fellow survivors like Henri (Djimon Hounsou), during the early stages of an alien invasion. While the aliens are blind, they attack anything that alerts their keen sense of hearing. 

Watch the trailer: A Quiet Place: Day One

Aside from Kenyan Lupita, there’s a host of African talent to look out for, including Benin’s Djimon (from A Quiet Place Part II), Zimbabwean child actor Takunda Khumalo, and Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire. 

First on Showmax. Stream A Quiet Place: Day One from Friday, 20 December.