The $225,000 film reportedly became the single most profitable film of 1974 (in cost-to-gross ratio), earning $18.8 million in North America and over $30 million worldwide.
It was one of the highest grossing independently financed movies of 1974. The success of the film inspired Return to Macon County (1975), which was not a direct sequel despite its title.
The movie was written on the back of scripts by Max Baer Jr. during breaks in filming The Beverly Hillbillies (1962).
The film is docudrama in tone. Although it was presented as "a true story" to attract a wider audience much like the Hollywood revisionist film Walking Tall (1973), its plot and characters are entirely fictional. Leif Garrett also starred in the three "Walking Tall" films.
The film is one of several so-called "drive-in" flicks that were presented as true stories (à la The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), Walking Tall (1973), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Jackson County Jail (1976), and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)) In each case, most, if not all, of what was portrayed on screen was outright fiction-- with the exception of "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", which was inspired by the Phantom Killer murders in Texarkana, Texas in 1946.