Jake Gyllenhaal's Underrated 'Rocky' Replacement Is Heading to a New Streamer

In 2014, Jake Gyllenhaal delivered what many consider to be the greatest performance of his career to date as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler. Dan Gilroy‘s dark crime thriller was a huge critical success, with Gyllenhaal earning numerous awards and nominations, although he was somehow snubbed from the final Best Actor shortlist at the Academy Awards. How could Gyllenhaal follow this up? Well, just one year later, among three other projects in 2015, Gyllehaal delivered another of his best performances, going through an intense physical transformation to portray Billy Hope in Southpaw.

If you have yet to see Gyllenhaal’s Rocky replacement, you’re in luck, as Southpaw is officially joining Paramount+ on January 1, 2026. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, with him and Gyllenhaal reuniting in 2021 on the Netflix thriller The Guilty, Southpaw also stars the likes of Rachel McAdams, Oona Laurence, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Forest Whitaker. Unlike Nightcrawler, Southpaw faced negative reception from critics, earning just 59% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes despite audiences awarding a positive 75%. The critics’ consensus on the site reads, “Jake Gyllenhaal delivers an impressively committed performance, but Southpaw beats it down with a dispiriting drama that pummels viewers with genre clichés.” A synopsis for Southpaw reads:

“Billy “The Great” Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal), the reigning junior middleweight boxing champion, has an impressive career, a loving wife and daughter, and a lavish lifestyle. However, when tragedy strikes, Billy hits rock bottom, losing his family, his house and his manager. He soon finds an unlikely savior in Tick Willis (Forest Whitaker), a former fighter who trains the city’s toughest amateur boxers. With his future on the line, Hope fights to reclaim the trust of those he loves the most.”

Was ‘Southpaw’ a Box Office Hit?

Against mixed critical opinion, Southpaw was received well by audiences, with this positive word of mouth helping the film achieve some box office success. Produced for a reported budget of $30 million, the sports drama tripled this investment with a final global total of $94 million. Split between a domestic haul of $52 million and a further $42 million from overseas markets, Southpaw became the 83rd highest-grossing movie of 2015, although it only managed to open in fifth place in the domestic box office ranks.

Southpaw is streaming on Paramount+ starting January 1, 2026. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.