It was a bizarre face-off at the box office over the weekend as two entirely different audiences – fans of teen stars and aficionados of slasher flicks – blasted ticket sales through the roof.
Disney’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” made a flawless segue from TV to the silver screen, soaring to No. 1 with a record-setting $42 million, largely on the strength of pre-adolescent and teenage girls.
The whopping take marked the best-ever opening for a song-and-dance movie, easily topping the $27.8 million set by “Mamma Mia!” in July.
In second place was “Saw V,” with perennial madman Jigsaw appearing for his annual October bloodfest. The movie rang up $30.5 million.
“It was good vs. evil at the box office, and both won,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “That combination of a G-rated and an R-rated movie, both chasing completely different audiences, proved to be a huge success.” With Post Wire Services