For Fraser, who stands at a height of 6' 3", it was a matter of practicality, easier than trying to find the sizes needed, and she dressed him in baggy knee length shorts and oversized T shirts. The film was a box office success. The film took in $9,866,120 in its opening weekend coming 4th at the box office. The film went on to earn a total of $40,693,477 at the North American box office on a budget of about $7,500,000. The film was released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 1992, titled "California Man", and opened on #5. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 15% based on reviews from 34 critics, with an average rating of 3.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Encino Man" isn't the first unabashedly silly comedy to embrace its stupidity and amass a cult following, but whether or not it works for you will largely be determined by your tolerance for Pauly Shore." On Metacritic the film has a score of 25% based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.  Variety panned the film, saying "Encino Man is a mindless would-be comedy aimed at the younger set. Low-budget quickie is insulting even within its own no-effort parameters." Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "There are a lot of funny ideas in Encino Man that don't come off because the director, Les Mayfield, and his screenwriter, Shawn Schepps, don't seem to have made up their minds how smart they want to be. A scene like Link freaking out during a visit to the La Brea tar pits museum should count for a lot more than it does here." Pauly Shore's performance in "Encino Man" won him the Razzie Award for Worst New Star. Link, again played by Fraser, makes a cameo appearance in the film "Son-in-Law" (1993), which also stars Pauly Shore. Fraser also briefly appears as a soldier with the name "Link" on his fatigues in "In the Army Now" starring Shore. In Evan Wright's book about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, "Generation Kill", the US Marine company commander is nicknamed Encino Man, supposedly for his incompetence. In the 2008 HBO miniseries of adaptation of the book the officer is played by Brian Patrick Wade.