Disney Channel Enjoys “Musical” Success
LJDB
Disney Channel is enjoying the surprise success of its first original musical, “High School Musical” which premiered last month.
The original movie’s premiere was watched by more than 11 million viewers, the most in the network’s history, while the succeeding airings over the premiere weekend attracted at least 6 million each.
In addition to the huge premiere numbers, the movie’s soundtrack has surprisingly, also produced big results. It has not left the Top 2 on Amazon.com’s Best Seller list for a month, while it places at #10 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart.
Several songs off the album, while not released as official singles, have placed on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart due to downloads at online music stores such as iTunes. The highest is “Breaking Free” at #4, while five other songs are in the Top 50: “Get’cha Head In The Game” (#23), “Start of Something New” (#28), “We’re All In This Together” (#34), “What I’ve Been Looking For” (#35), and “Stick To The Status Quo” (#43).
Disney Channel reportedly already has scripts ready for two sequels to the movie, which could premiere in early 2007. The success of the movie and soundtrack has been a pleasant shock for the network, which has not enjoyed such success with its recent projects in the past year and a half.