A Time to Kill: John Grisham’s Legal Thriller Surges On Netflix 30 Years Later

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The 1996 legal drama A Time to Kill is currently gaining popularity on Netflix, almost 30 years after it first came out. The film is based on a novel by John Grisham, a well-known author of legal thrillers. Several of Grisham’s books, including The Firm (1991), The Pelican Brief (1993), and The Rainmaker (1997), were successfully adapted into major films with prominent Hollywood directors and actors throughout the 1990s.

As of the week of November 11th-16th, A Time to Kill is the sixth most popular movie on Netflix globally, with 5.4 million views totaling 13.4 million hours watched. It’s currently behind Frankenstein, A Merry Little Ex-Mas, KPop Demon Hunters, In Your Dreams, and Being Eddie, but ahead of titles like The Little Things, A House of Dynamite, The Marksman, and Shrek Forever After, which rounds out the top 10.

Even though “A Time to Kill” is currently a top 10 movie in 67 countries, it’s not available to stream on Netflix in the U.S. You can still watch it by renting or buying it digitally, with options available on Prime Video starting at $3.79.

Directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Academy Award winner Akiva Goldsman (known for A Beautiful Mind), A Time to Kill is based on John Grisham’s first novel. The film tells the story of a young lawyer in Mississippi who defends a Black father who shot and killed the two white men who attacked his daughter.

The film boasts an impressive cast of award-winning and nominated actors, including Oscar winners Sandra Bullock (known for The Blind Side), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty), Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), Chris Cooper (Adaptation), and Octavia Spencer, in her first film role. Samuel L. Jackson, an Oscar nominee for Pulp Fiction, also appears in the movie.

The film features a talented supporting cast including Emmy Award winners Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland (known from 24), Charles S. Dutton, and Patrick McGoohan. Oliver Platt (The West Wing, The Bear) and Ashley Judd, both Emmy nominees, also star, along with Beth Grant, Kurtwood Smith, and Joe Seneca.

When A Time to Kill was first released, critics had a mixed reaction. Some felt the movie was too long and didn’t fully explore its important themes. Despite these criticisms, strong filmmaking and great performances helped it succeed. Like many films based on John Grisham’s novels, it performed very well commercially, earning $152 million on a $40 million budget.

Both A Time to Kill and The Client (from 1994) have recently become popular on Netflix, appearing in the platform’s Global Top 10 list this year. A Time to Kill is actually the second John Grisham film directed by Joel Schumacher to achieve this, following The Client‘s success in August 2025.

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2025-11-19 00:44