High School Musical turns 15

[TMC]

https://variety.com/2021/film/featur...ns-1234886967/

The Kenny Ortega-directed Disney Channel TV movie "was the rare made-for-TV movie that transcended its humble origins and captivated a generation of teens and tweens when it premiered on Jan. 20, 2006," says Rebecca Rubin. "It didn’t just launch the careers Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens (known then as Vanessa Anne Hudgens), Ashley Tisdale and more. It also became a financial juggernaut for the Disney Channel, driving unprecedented demand for DVDs, dolls, T-shirts, posters, sleeping bags, lunch boxes — you name it, Troy and Gabriella’s faces were on it. Then came a sold-out concert tour, traveling ice shows, touring stage productions, and a show at Disney theme parks."

[Hawkee]

When Disney Channel launched High School Musical in 2006 many people thought it just be another underrated Disney Channel movie but when it premiered it recieved rave reviews and became the most watched Disney Channel Original Movie in history surpassing the debuts of other Disney Channel movies. But what really made High School Musical have a huge fanbase is that it made Zac Efron a bigger household name because prior to High School Musical Zac already was a star in the drama Summerland and it launched the career of Vanessa Hudgens and also Corbin Bleu and Lucas Grabeel as well and you could never look at any teen magazine without seeing Zac Efron on it's cover because to teens and older girls Zac was like Donny Osmond. I also think that when Disney Channel was developing High School Musical that they took inspiration from Grease and with Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron they were like John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. But with it's soaring popularity and sprouting merchandise such as dolls clothing cereal candy perfumes CDs and more Disney never expected High School Musical to take off like a rocket. And when High School Musical 2 premiered the same success was repeated again because High School Musical 2 was like Grease 2 and Disney knew the old college try to make a successful film work for TV but had High School Musical had been chosen to air on Disney Channel rather than released to theaters it would've been a huge hit. But it did make a spin-off movie with Ashley Tisdale's character Sharpay Evans called Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure which could've been a sitcom rather than a movie. But ever since High School Musical you don't hear much about Monique Coleman or Corbin Bleu anymore and they should've been bigger stars for Disney due to the movie's success. Who knows maybe they will remake High School Musical someday
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