• Madame Web launches on 16th February in South Africa.
• Those who want to see it early can do so on Valentine’s Day – 14th February.
• Only Ster-Kinekor seems to be offering this pre-screening.

In a bit of an odd choice for Valentine’s Day, South Africans can see the latest Sony Marvel movie a couple of days early as Madame Web arrives in pre-screenings in the country.

Valentine’s Day is two days before the public release of the movie on 16th February so couples – or fans who really want to fly solo to catch this ahead of time – will be able to see this new entry ahead of the rest of the world.

Right now it seems that only Ster-Kinekor is offering these pre-screenings with the bookings page available here. The only choice for seats is the 2D Prestige cinemas where seats cost R220 each. That means a couple will need to fork over R440 before counting snacks, making this quite a hard sell to celebrate Valentine’s Day. For that money many other romantic activities can be done for less and, again, this isn’t a particularly fitting movie for the day.

“In a switch from the typical genre, Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel publishing’s most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who develops the power to see the future… and realizes she can use that insight to change it. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women bound for powerful destinies…if they can all survive a deadly present,” reads the official synopsis from Sony.

Those three women are Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O’Connor. Add in some other names like Emma Roberts and Adam Scott, and this is an unusually star-studded cast for a Sony Marvel movie.

Aside from the limited choice for seats not all Ster-Kinekor branches will be showing the movie. Below are the available cinemas to book tickets:

Eastern Cape

• Baywest

Gauteng

• Carnival City
• Cradlestone
• Cresta
• Eastgate
• Mall of Africa
• Sandton
• The Grove
• The Zone @ Rosebank
• Vaal

KwaZulu-Natal

• Gateway

Mpumalanga

• Ilanga

Western Cape

• Cavendish
• V&A

Strangely enough Eastgate is also offering a showing at 19:30 on Thursday, 15th February. We would have thought that there would be just one round of pre-screenings for Valentine’s Day before the 16th February release, but we suppose that isn’t the case for Eastgate.

At this point, we also have to mention that – there’s no kind way to say this – Madame Web does not look good. You can watch the trailer below and decide for yourself, but other factors have also come up.

Aforementioned leading character Dakota Johnson changed the agency that represents her late last year. Fans and pundits believe that Johnson was essentially misled into this project with her and other cast members believing they were joining the MCU.

As a quick aside if you also believe that: Sony’s Marvel movies essentially exist in their own bubble that is distinct and separate from Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). With the one concrete exception of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man (which Disney / Marvel consulted on), the two are not the same despite the Marvel roots.

Sony’s Marvel endeavours have brought us the likes of Morbius, Fantastic Four (2015) and Kraven the Hunter later this year.

To be fair some people love the Tom Hardy Venom movies, which are also under Sony. In the animation department, Sony also kills it with Spider-Verse.

Only time will tell which side Madame Web falls into, but on Valentine’s Day 2024, in South Africa, you can find out.