Jake Gyllenhaal's Ambulance: From Box Office Flop To Netflix Hit

Jake Gyllenhaal's Forgotten Action Thriller Flop Returns As Netflix Streaming Hit 3 Years Later Jake Gyllenhaal holds a camera against the backdrop of the city in Nightcrawler.Image via Open Road Films By  Jeff Dodge Published 22 minutes ago Jeff Dodge (he/him), a published author and graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena. Fun Fact: he’s been to every single Idol Live! Tour. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

The Jake Gyllenhaal thriller Ambulance, which underwhelmed at the box office, has finally found success on Netflix. Gyllenhaal has starred in countless movies throughout his career, including City Slickers, October Sky, Brokeback Mountain, The Day After Tomorrow, Nightcrawler and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Even though he's a hugely successful movie star, not every project can be a home run.

The Michael Bay-directed action thriller Ambulance was a flop at the box office in 2022, but it's finding new life in the world of streaming. On November 24, 2025, Ambulance is sitting at No. 3 on Netflix's Top 10 Movies in the U.S. Today chart, with Champagne Problems and The Carman Family Deaths taking the top two spots.

Round out the Top 10 movies on Netflix right now are In Your Dreams, Train Dreams, K-Pop Demon Hunters, The Sandlot, Frankenstein, Selena y Los Dinos: A Family's Legacy and Mistletoe Mixup.

The Top 10 TV shows on Netflix as of November 24 are The Beast in Me, A Man on the Inside, Absentia, Stranger Things, Mark Rober's CrunchLabs, The Great British Baking Show: Holidays, One Shot with Ed Sheeran: A Music Experience, Homeland, Last Samurai Standing and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.

In Ambulance, Gyllenhaal and Abdul-Mateen star as adoptive brothers who team up to rob a bank but end up having to escape via an ambulance they hijack. The Ambulance cast also included Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González and Jackson White.

When the movie was released in theaters in 2022, it had two huge names attached to it: star Gyllenhaal and director Bay. The filmmaker is best known for helming big-screen flicks like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and Transformers.

However, Gyllenhaal and Bay's action thriller landed with a thud upon its March 2022 release, where it only grossed $52.3 million against a $40 million budget. Ambulance earned positive-to-mixed reviews, with a 68% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Moviegoers gave the film a better reception, with an 87% audience score. Unfortunately, not many of those consumers showed up to the theater to ensure the movie was a hit.

Even though it was a box office failure, Ambulance has found much better success lately. In August 2024, the thriller surged up to No. 9 on Netflix's Top 10 global streaming chart, with 4.1 million views.

Now Ambulance is surging even higher within the United States, this time to No. 3. Various factors likely contributed to the disappointing box office returns in 2022, like the COVID-19 pandemic, but streaming services like Netflix have allowed financial flops to find brand-new audiences who weren't willing to trek to the movie theater and pay money to see them.

Gyllenhaal has multiple projects that will be released in coming years, including The Bride!, Remain, In the Grey and Road House 2. Only time will tell if these films go the way of Ambulance or if they'll be immediate hits with audiences.

6.0/10 6/10

Ambulance

10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed R Drama Crime Action Release Date April 8, 2022 Runtime 136 minutes Director Michael Bay Writers Chris Fedak

Cast

See All

• Cedric Sanders
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Genres Drama, Crime, Action Budget $40 million Studio(s) Universal Pictures Distributor(s) Universal Pictures Powered by Expand Collapse

• Movies
• Ambulance
• Jake Gyllenhaal

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