the film was released while grisham was at the height of his popularity. that week, grisham and michael crichton evenly divided the top six paperback spots on "the new york times" best seller list. it opened on june 30, 1993 in 2,393 theatres, and landed at #1 at the box office, grossing $25.4 million over the 4th of july weekend. it remained in the #1 spot at the box office for 3 weeks. after 12 weeks in theatres, the film was a huge success, making over $158 million domestically and $111 million internationally ($270 million worldwide). additionally, it was the largest grossing r-rated movie of 1993 and of any film based on a grisham novel.