John Grisham Statistics

John Grisham’s sales statistics

• John Grisham’s books have sold over 300 million copies
• Grisham is estimated to earn $21 million per year
• Grisham has an estimated net worth of over $350 million
• 28 Grisham books in a row have been New York Times bestsellers
• Grisham movies have made over $645 million at the box office
• John Grisham’s books have been translated into 42 languages
• Grisham’s works in total have generated over $1 billion
• Grisham initially resisted ebooks fearing they would make it more for aspiring authors to get published but came to an agreement with his publisher in 2010
• Only 3 authors have ever sold two million copies of a book on first print – Grisham, JK Rowling and Tom Clancy

How many books has John Grisham written?

• John Grisham has written 51 books
• His first book – A Time to Kill – was published in 1989
• Since 1991, Grisham has published at least 1 book each year
• His most prolific year was 2016 when he published 4 books
• The average Grisham book is 386 pages long
• The Chamber is his longest published book at 688 pages

Book Title	Published	Page Count	Audiobook Length
A Time to Kill	1989	672	16 hrs and 47 mins
The Firm	1991	432	17 hrs and 10 mins
The Pelican Brief	1992	384	10 hrs and 38 mins
The Client	1993	422	5 hrs and 51 mins
The Chamber	1994	688	16 hrs and 59 mins
The Rainmaker	1995	434	16 hrs and 59 mins
The Runaway Jury	1996	560	14 hrs and 4 mins
The Partner	1997	528	11 hrs and 27 mins
The Street Lawyer	1998	448	10 hrs and 19 mins
The Testament	1999	482	14 hrs and 33 mins
The Brethren	2000	416	11 hrs and 34 mins
A Painted House	2001	388	12 hrs and 4 mins
Skipping Christmas	2001	198	3 hrs and 42 mins
The Summons	2002	245	8 hrs and 47 mins
The Wavedancer Benefit: A Tribute to Frank Muller	2002	–	–
Bleachers	2003	240	4 hrs and 19 mins
The King of Torts	2003	480	11 hrs and 48 mins
The Last Juror	2004	496	11 hrs and 48 mins
The Broker	2005	482	11 hrs and 9 mins
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town	2006	448	12 hrs and 28 mins
Playing for Pizza	2007	320	6 hrs and 52 mins
The Appeal	2008	431	12 hrs and 26 mins
The Associate	2009	498	10 hrs and 49 mins
Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs they Quit	2010	432	–
The Confession	2010	418	14 hrs and 32 mins
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer	2010	288	5 hrs and 3 mins
The Litigators	2011	385	11 hrs and 33 mins
Theodore Boone: The Abduction	2011	256	4 hrs and 1 min
Calico Joe	2012	272	4 hrs and 35 mins
The Racketeer	2012	352	12 hrs and 46 mins
Theodore Boone: The Accused	2012	271	5 hrs and 16 mins
Sycamore Row	2013	464	20 hrs and 46 mins
Theodore Boone: The Activist	2013	289	5 hrs and 55 mins
Gray Mountain	2014	386	14 hrs and 46 mins
Rogue Lawyer	2015	368	11 hrs and 18 mins
Theodore Boone: The Fugitive	2015	288	5 hrs and 2 mins
Partners	2016	320	1 hr and 36 mins
The Whistler	2016	432	13 hrs and 10 mins
Theodore Boone: The Scandal	2016	240	3 hrs and 59 mins
Witness to a Trial	2016	37	54 mins
Camino Island	2017	336	8 hrs and 45 mins
The Rooster Bar	2017	384	10 hrs and 17 mins
The Reckoning	2018	432	17 hrs and 36 mins
The Guardians	2019	384	11 hrs and 50 mins
Theodore Boone: The Accomplice	2019	240	4 hrs and 38 mins
A Time for Mercy	2020	480	19 hrs and 59 mins
Camino Winds	2020	336	8 hrs and 42 mins
Sooley	2021	354	10 hrs and 27 mins
The Judge’s List	2021	368	11 hrs and 36 mins
Sparring Partners	2022	320	9 hrs and 57 mins
The Boys from Biloxi	2022	464	17 hrs and 22 mins

John Grisham film and TV adaptations

• 15 movies and TV series have been based upon John Grisham books
• 11 feature length movies
• 4 TV series
• Grisham movies have made over $645 million at the box office
• Grisham was paid $600,000 and $1.75 million for the rights to The Firm and The Pelican Brief respectively

John Grisham movies

Rank	Release	Box office	Release Date
1	The Firm	$158.3 million	Jul 2, 1993
2	The Pelican Brief	$100.1 million	Dec 17, 1993
3	The Client	$92.1 million	Jul 22, 1994
4	A Time to Kill	$108.7 million	Jul 24, 1996
5	The Chamber	$14.5 million	Oct 11, 1996
6	The Rainmaker	$45.9 million	Nov 21, 1997
7	The Gingerbread Man	$1.7 million	Jan 23, 1998
8	Runaway Jury	$49.4 million	Oct 17, 2003
9	Mickey	$300 thousand	Apr 30, 2004
10	Christmas with the Kranks (based on Skipping Christmas)	$73.8 million	Nov 24, 2004

John Grisham TV adaptations

Title	Years on air	Seasons	No. of episodes	Network
The Client	1995-96	1	20	CBS
The Street Lawyer	2003	None	1	Pilot only
The Firm	2011-12	1	22	NBC
The Innocent Man	2018	1 (Miniseries)	6	Netflix

How did John Grisham become a writer?

• Grisham was born in Arkansas in 1955
• When he was 4, the family moved to Southaven, Mississippi which was actually a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee but just over the state border
• Grisham graduated Mississippi State University with a degree in Accounting
• He later graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Law
• Grisham was a lawyer and was then elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives
• Grisham claims it was a case he saw in a Mississippi courthouse that inspired him to write his first book – A Time To Kill
• He wrote in the mornings and in his spare time – an hour here and an hour there when he could
• He was rejected by 28 different publishers before a small publishing house agreed to print a small run
• Grisham started his 2nd novel, The Firm, the day after he finished his first
• He published The Firm in 1991 and has published at least one book every year since
• The Firm spent 47 weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list