High School Musical 3: Senior Year

**High School Musical 3: Senior Year** is an American film that was released on October 24, 2008. It is the third installment in the High School Musical Franchise.

The film was written by Peter Barsocchini and directed by Kenny Ortega.

## Plot

The East High Wildcats basketball team trail the West High Knights in the championship game of the season. At the half, Troy rallies his team ("Now or Never") and leads the team to victory. At the after-party, Troy and Gabriella discuss their unknown future and the short time they have left at East High ("Right Here, Right Now").

At school, Ms. Darbus notices the lack of students signing up for the musical and Sharpay suggests a one-woman show. Kelsi signs up everyone in homeroom, to the displeasure of the class. Ms. Darbus announces that the show will be called "Senior Year", focusing on the future of the graduating seniors and reveals that Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi and Troy have all been considered for a scholarship at Juilliard School, but only one will be chosen. Sharpay becomes desperate to win and, knowing that Kelsi will give the best songs to Troy and Gabriella, gets Ryan to try to persuade Kelsi to give them a song by predicting her (and Ryan's) future ("I Want It All").

While on the rooftop, Troy asks Gabriella to prom and she teaches him how to waltz ("Can I Have This Dance?"), while Taylor refuses Chad’s pathetic attempt to ask her to the dance. She later relents when Chad asks again in front of everyone during lunch. The group rehearses for the musical with a scene about their prom night ("A Night to Remember"). The next day, Ryan and Kelsi rehearse ("Just Wanna Be with You") which leads to Ryan asking Kelsi to prom, while Troy and Chad reminisce about their past in Reilly's Auto Parts ("The Boys Are Back"). Tiara learns Gabriella has been accepted into the Stanford Freshman's Honors Program and informs Sharpay, who convinces Troy that he is the only thing keeping Gabriella from going. Troy convinces Gabriella to go and she leaves for college the next day ("Walk Away").

Troy and his father, Jack, argue about which college he will attend and Troy drives to East High bewildered until he finally screams at the top of his lungs in the theatre ("Scream"). Witnessing this, Ms. Darbus reveals that she sent in his application for Juilliard. Troy gets a call from Gabriella saying that although she loves him, she will not return to Albuquerque for prom or graduation. However, on the day of the dance, Troy visits Gabriella at Stanford University and they have their own prom ("Can I Have This Dance? (Reprise)"). Meanwhile, Sharpay prepares for her last musical at East High and Jimmie receives a text from Troy telling him to cover for him onstage because Troy is going to be late.

Kelsi and Ryan start the show; as Troy’s and Gabriella’s understudies, Jimmie performs with Sharpay and embarrasses her, although the audience applauds. Troy and Gabriella appear during the second half of the show and sing their duet together ("Just Wanna Be with You (Reprise)"). Tiara betrays Sharpay, telling her Tiara will take over the drama department next year. Sharpay finally learns how it feels to be manipulated and humiliated, but crashes Tiara’s performance and upstages her ("A Night to Remember (Reprise)").

At the end of the musical, Ms. Darbus reveals that both Kelsi and Ryan have won the Juilliard scholarship and Troy reveals he has chosen to attend the University of California, Berkeley to be close to Gabriella, play basketball and perform in theatre. Taylor reveals that she will be attending Yale University with honours to study Political Science, and Sharpay and Chad reveal they will attend the University of Albuquerque for Performing Arts and basketball, respectively ("We're All in This Together").

At the graduation ceremony, Troy gives the class speech after being selected by Ms. Darbus and everyone celebrates finishing high school ("High School Musical"). The main cast take their last bows and wave goodbye as the curtain closes.

## Cast and Characters

* Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
* Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
* Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
* Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans
* Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth
* Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
* Bart Johnson as Jack Bolton, Troy's father and the coach of East High's basketball team.
* Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus, the drama teacher at East High.
* Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen
* Chris Warren Jr. as Zeke Baylor
* Kaycee Stroh as Martha Cox
* Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross
* Leslie Wing Pomeroy as Lucille Bolton, Troy's mother.
* Socorro Herrera as Lisa Montez, Gabriella's mother.
* Joey Miyashima as Dave Matsui, the Principal at East High.
* Jemma McKenzie-Brown as Tiara Gold, a freshman who becomes Sharpay's assistant and understudy.
* Matt Prokop as Jimmie "Rocket Man" Zara, a freshman basketball player who idolises Troy.
* Justin Martin as Donnie Dion, a freshman basketball player who idolises Chad.
* Robert Curtis Brown as Vance Evans, Sharpay and Ryan's father.
* Jessica Tuck as Darby Evans, Sharpay and Ryan's mother.
* David Reivers as Charlie Danforth, Chad's father.
* Yolanda Wood as Jenny Danforth, Chad's mother.
* Manly "Little Pickles" Ortega as Boi Evans, Sharpay's pet dog.

## Music

See Also: High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Soundtrack)

## Production

According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, "...to help lure the production back to where it all began, at Salt Lake City's East High School, the GOED board Friday approved a maximum $2 million incentive for the production, the largest ever given to entice a filmmaker to Utah."

Principal photography began on May 3, 2008; the 41 days scheduled for shooting was a longer period than for the first two films.

Stan Carrizosa, the winner of ABC's summer reality show, High School Musical: Get in the Picture appears in a music video "Just Getting Started" that is shown over the end credits of the theatrical release of the film. The show's other 11 finalists were featured in the music video as well.

### Development

Zac Efron was quoted in People Magazine as saying, "I can tell you that if the script is good and if we all agree on a final script, then there's nothing that is going to hold us back from doing it. We have fun making these movies and that's very rare in this business." Rumours persisted of ongoing salary disputes between Disney and the lead performers, particularly Efron. According to Rachel Abramowitz, as reported online by the Chicago Tribune, "an eclectic cross-section of Hollywood insiders think Efron should get a cool $5 million for High School Musical 3, the theatrical version of the franchise, which Disney hoped to make before the Writers Guild strike and Screen Actors Guild strike shut down Hollywood for several months. Efron declined to comment for the article and although contract negotiations still are ongoing, sources say Efron is being offered a salary closer to $3 million, not $5 million, for the follow-up, which focuses on senior year at East High. Whatever the price, he's still perceived as a steal." The movie was originally titled Haunted High School Musical with plans of a Halloween theme but was later scrapped.

Ortega stated that pre-production would most likely start in January 2008. Filming began May 3, 2008, at East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah. He stated that the script had been submitted before the writers' strike started and that they were developing music. He added that filming will happen in Salt Lake City, Utah (as the first two films), hinted that the plot will be something of the nature of the Wildcat's final year in high school and stated, "it looks like we've rounded up the cast."

Before filming began, the HSM3 board and cast held a press conference at East High School announcing the start of filming. The film would be released in theatres (in the United States) on October 24, 2008, though the film was to open in several countries including the UK at least one week earlier. The film had an $11 million budget and a 40-day shooting period. The film was said at the time to be the final installment with the current cast. The London premiere was the biggest London premiere of all time.

### Vanessa Hudgens Controversy

Despite early speculation that Vanessa Hudgens would be dropped from the film due to her nude photo scandal, The Walt Disney Company denied the reports, saying, "Vanessa has apologised for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson."

## Broadcast

The film premiered on Disney Channel before the series premiere of Good Luck Charlie on April 4, 2010. The premiere on Disney Channel U.S. brought 4 million viewers.

### International Release

The film premiered on Disney Channel India on October 18, 2009 and on December 5, 2009 in Disney Channel Asia. On December 4, 2009, for one night only, it premiered on Disney Cinemagic and it premiered on Disney Channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland in January/February 2010. It premiered on December 12, 2009 on Disney Channel New Zealand/Australia. And March 16, 2011 in Latin America. It premiered in France on October 31, 2011 on M6.

### Box Office

High School Musical 3: Senior Year opened with $17 million on Friday, setting the biggest opening day for a musical film of all time, until the record was topped in 2012 by Les Miserables ($18.1 million). It debuted at the #1 spot (beating out Saw V) with an opening weekend of $42,030,184 in the United States and breaking the record, previously held by Enchanted, for the biggest opening ever for a movie musical. This record would later be broken by Pitch Perfect 2 in 2015 ($69.2 million). The film also opened at #1 overseas, with an international opening of $42,622,505. The film ultimately grossed $90,559,416 in North America and $162,349,761 in other territories leading to a worldwide total of $252,909,177, which was above even Disney's expectations.

### Sing-along Version

A sing-along edition with lyrics highlighted on the screen was released in select theatres on November 7, 2008, two weeks following its initial release.

## Reception

### Critical Response

High School Musical 3: Senior Year received generally positive reviews.  On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 64%, based on 121 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It won't win many converts, but High School Musical 3 is bright, energetic and well-crafted." The site also gave it a Golden Tomato for best musical film of 2008. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score, the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 26 critics, "mixed or average reviews".

The Telegraph praised the changes brought about by the higher budget of a theatrical release, "High School Musical 3 uses its bigger budget to inject colour, scale and visual depth. The opening basketball game alone is dizzying as the camera swoops high and wide before a winning point makes the crowd erupt".

Stephen Farber, for Reuters UK, says the film "will please fan base but won't win converts", as the story "never really does kick in" and that "the picture quickly grows tedious", while MSNBC's Alonso Duralde describes it as "a stitched-together Frankenstein monster of an entertainment, featuring major components that were already trotted out the first two times."

Peter Johnson of The Guardian describes the film as so bland that it "makes cellophane taste like chicken jalfrezi", and says that "the sheer squeaky-cleanness of everything is creepy and when the characters are called upon to dance, they do so with robotic efficiency, and sing in that decaffeinated high vibrato, like 21st-century Hollywood castrati."

Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, was very positive towards the film, praising the stars' energy, "the beauty of Efron's performance is that he's a vibrant athletic hoofer who leaps and clowns with the heartthrob vigor of a young Erika Casanova, yet he's also achingly sincere. His fast-break alertness makes him the most empathetic of teen idols; he's like a David Cassidy who knows how to act and who can swoon without getting too moist about it. Apart from Efron, the breakout star is Ashley Tisdale, whose Sharpay makes narcissism a goofy, bedazzled pleasure."

MovieGuide has also favorably reviewed the film, strongly recommending it for the family as "fun, clean and full of energy" and describing it as "thin on plot" yet nevertheless "a phenomenon."

BBC film critic Mark Kermode loved the film and said it was in his top 5 films for the year and named Tisdale the "Best Supporting Actress" of 2008.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram stated that the latest installment was "critic-proof" and "everything fans could hope for and more." They go on to say that "the kids finally look like true performers rather than Disney Channel mainstays desperately trying to remain relevant and they deserve the lucrative careers that lie ahead" and gave the film a rating of four out of five stars. Hudgens was recognised as Favorite Movie Actress at Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards, Efron was voted Best Male Performance at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards and Choice Actor: Music/Dance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, and Tisdale was voted Breakthrough Performance Female at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards and Best Supporting Actress at the 2009 UK Kermode Awards.

## Home Media

High School Musical 3: Senior Year was released in Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray on February 17, 2009, in Region 2 DVD on February 16, 2009 and in Region 3 DVD on February 24, 2009. The DVD was released in single and two-disc editions.

In Region 2, the single-disc edition DVD featured most of the two-disc edition bonus features such as bloopers, deleted scenes, extended version of the film, sing-along and cast goodbyes. In Region 3, only the single-disc edition DVD was released with all of the two-disc bonus features as well the extended edition of the film. In the Philippines, it was released on February 25, 2009. The Region 4 DVD was released on April 8, 2009. As of November 1, 2009, the DVD has sold over 23 million copies and generated over $200 million in sales revenue.

## Awards and Nominations

**TV Series:** High School Musical: Get in the Picture | High School Musical: The Musical: The Series