Bollywood's first major release of September is here. The third installment of the Jolly LLB series has released today (September 19) in theaters worldwide. Arshad Warsi and Akshay Kumar, who played the respective leads in Jolly LLB and Jolly LLB 2, are both headlining Jolly LLB 3 to add to the hype of the project. While the film hasn't had overwhelmingly positive early reviews, it is also important to note that there doesn't seem to be any negativity around the film. That means that Jolly LLB 3 has managed decent output in terms of its content and the early estimates of the opening day reflect a decent start the ticket windows.
Jolly LLB in 2013 was a success theatrically but it also carried low costs, given that Warsi headlined the project. The film opened to Rs 2.98 crore nett on its first day and had a lifetime collection of Rs 30 crore nett in India. Meanwhile, Jolly LLB 2 reaped the goodwill of the first part and Kumar's purple patch at the box office to ensure an opening day of Rs 12 crore nett with the weekend clocking Rs 47 crore for the film. The lifetime collections of the second part were around Rs 107 crore nett. Now these numbers show that the franchise had a meteoric rise in terms of its branding and acceptance, which means that the third part should ideally be opening to bigger numbers. However, that isn't the case for Jolly LLB 3, although the opening day still indicates a reasonable start.
Early estimates ensure a double-digit opening as bare minimum but how much further it will go depends on the evening and night shows, along with the acceptance from interior regions and single screens. Ideally, the third film of such a franchise with a star in the lead should be opening to at least Rs 15 crore nett if not Rs 20 crore nett but the box office dynamics have also changed post-pandemic in Bollywood. Only films that are made on a high scale are drawing audiences to the big screen with very few films being exceptions. Therefore, small-budget films and content-oriented projects have found it harder to get a big start at the ticket windows, even with the presence of stars. Taking all this into consideration, a double-digit start is still a positive start for Jolly LLB 3 but it has to cover ground across the weekend.
If the early reviews stay stable and if there is an increased acceptance for the film in the country, it has the potential to have a long run at the box office, given that the next major release is only on 2nd October. The setting of the film means that it is likely to appeal more to the Delhi/UP regions and the theme could resonate with Rajasthan as well. However, the Mumbai circuit that dictates a huge chunk of a Bollywood film's collections, hasn't started strongly and will need to pick up massively. The Gujarat circuit is one that generally favours comedy films but then, Jolly LLB 3 isn't the quintessential Bollywood comedy film, so there is uncertainty on how it will fare there in the coming days.
For now, all we can say is that the film has taken a solid start the box office. Yes, the numbers could have been better but the base is there for it to become a HIT, if the content resonates with the target audience.