After showing a noticeable slowdown at the start of its second week, Pradeep Ranganathan’s Dude witnessed a welcome uptick on Saturday. The film, which had dropped to Rs 2 crore on Friday, earned an estimated Rs 3.15 crore on its ninth day across India, as per early estimates from Sacnilk.com. This brings the film’s total domestic collection to Rs 61.65 crore.

The 57 per cent rise from Friday to Saturday signals that the Dude wave isn’t over yet. The romantic action entertainer, which stars Mamitha Baiju alongside Pradeep, has managed to pull audiences back to theatres as word-of-mouth continues to sustain its popularity, especially among the youth. While the film had a sharp midweek decline after its strong opening week of Rs 56.5 crore, the new weekend has helped stabilise its earnings.

Occupancy in Tamil Nadu averaged 32.67 per cent on Saturday, with night shows touching nearly 46 per cent. Chennai (43.5 per cent) and Pondicherry (56.75 per cent) registered the highest turnout, while other centres like Coimbatore and Madurai remained moderate. The Telugu version continues to contribute modestly, though the Tamil version remains the primary driver of the film’s revenue.

While Mari Selvaraj’s Bison Kaalamaadan is maintaining a steady and growing box office presence with strong footfalls in interior regions, Dude continues to lead in total revenue and urban occupancy. Having already crossed Rs 100 crore worldwide, the film is now comfortably in its profit zone and could witness another spike on Sunday before settling into weekday steadiness.

Backed by Mythri Movie Makers and featuring music by Sai Abhyankkar, Dude has proven to be both a commercial and cultural success, reaffirming Pradeep Ranganathan’s pull as a crowd-favourite star-director in Tamil cinema.