"High School Musical": The Phenomenon

Disney Cashes In On Success Of Unheralded Movie With Sequel, DVDs And Tours

(CBS)  It started as just another Disney cable movie. But now it seems every "tweenager" knows the words to "We're All In This Together."

"High School Musical," the fresh-scrubbed film about a teenage jock and a brainiac who shock their friends by auditioning for the school show, has struck a nerve.

Says mom Chrissy Whitelaw: "I think kids like having role models to look up to and enjoy singing along."

More than just an unexpected hit, it's now a global entertainment phenomenon, reports CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason. The DVD has sold 7.8 million copies and the CD was the No. 1 album in the country last year. There's a live concert tour, a live stage show — even "High School Musical on Ice."

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Co-star Vanessa Hudgens spoke about "High School Musical 2" on The Early Show. To see the interview, click here.

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"What's funny is every high school across the nation does a version of 'High School Musical' now. It basically is this generation's 'Grease,'" says Dalton Ross, editor of Entertainment Weekly.

That success has spread in a word-of-mouth wildfire.

"The first night it aired, the texting numbers at all the major cell phone carriers went up during the movie. Kids were texting each other: 'Turn this on,' 'Zac's cute,'" says "High School Musical" author Peter Barsocchini.

Even in its 21st repeat showing on the Disney Channel, "High School Musical" drew nearly 6 million viewers. Not even the Disney marketing machine expected this show would be such a slam dunk.

It’s made stars of cast members like Zac Efron, who plays heartthrob basketball captain Troy Bolton. On the cover of Rolling Stone this week, Efron had fans swooning at the premiere of "High School Musical 2."

Ross says that kind of success meant there had to be a sequel.

"Obviously, with those sorts of numbers, you're going to go back to that well and you're gonna get it until there's no water left," says Ross.

The sing-along continues Friday night. This time, with a baseball number, and Disney is banking on a home run.

[oakishpines]

'' ... i had a million dollars and i wanted to return on investment ten million dollars, so i started to make a movie and then decided i''d make 10 $100,000 movies and then decided 100 $10,000 and then 1000 $1,000 and eventually went to a million kids and said: here kid is a penny, dance me a get well feed world song, a medical you are here map song dance skit kit ... and each kid said ''keep the penny, dancing get well feed world songs, and medical you are here map song dance skit kits, is free'' ... and i made ten million dollars for free ... ''

'' ... poor poor god and congress and networkds was born in a world of militants screaming freedom and liberty and dare and shock and awe and we''ll get you anyplace anytime and most folk dance get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting amoung the tens millions song dance skit kit spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle ffirst aid lunch farm cottage studio trails ...

... so she screams ''freedom and liberty'' and ''dare and shock and awe'' and ''we''ll get you anyplace anytime'' and ''most folk dance get well feed world songs rallied around the sick beds drifting amoung the tens millions song dance skit kit spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle ffirst aid lunch farm cottage studio trails'' ... ''

[oakishpines]

girls did it

girls do everything

in the eighties, if there was a flood or a forest fire: girls with horns on thier heads did it

in the ninetys, it was girls with wings and halos

now it''''''''s girls with bumble bees in their britches

i sneeze and i sneeze up girls

i get out of bed and i rollover girls and fall into a pile of them on the floor

i open my mouth to clean my teeth and find their girls

they''''re in my hair and in my pockets

i fix some food and find all over the plate: girls

i''''ve had it with them

a man got arrested for having *** with some girls and they started screaming at the girls that arrested him: imagine yourself in a forest on a invisible leash spanked all over with feathers

then they started singing get well soon and you are here and why why why and feed the world and first aid on the trail

somebody should do something about all these girls

chase them through the garden and criticize them till they''''re screaming and crying and behaving like they weren''''t born naked and lazy and ignorant and profane and blemished and all over


after all the muslim men starved to death by the baby girls waring in iraq and afghanistan: the men of the u.s. will never be liberated because the cost of so many christian men dead is too much

[oakishpines]

'' ... who''s more dangerous, the militants patroling the people, or the press that ignores all the people patrolled by militants?? ... ''


'' ... problem: people are stupid and i am not

solution: blockbust

problem: people lack get well feed world rallys around the sick beds

solution:
rally around the sick beds dancing get well feed world songs ... ''


'' ... need more spore bloom weed dragons, less space shuttles built by folk that shoot birds and replace them with airplanes and call that techno wizardry ... ''


'' ... nature built a p.c. that knows little of digits and equations in a mathmatical sense, so why do people build mathmatics that two and twelve year olds turn their noses from on mass while twenty and forty year old math enthusiasts make threats about where they''ll get in life without ''appropriate skills'' ... ''