High School Musical 3: Senior Year

"The year of their lives begins."

2008 1h 52m EN

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6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 3,650

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Synopsis

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As seniors in high school, Troy and Gabriella struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.

“The year of their lives begins.”

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Cast

Zac Efron
Troy Bolton
Vanessa Hudgens
Gabriella Montez
Ashley French
Sharpay Evans
Lucas Grabeel
Ryan Evans
Corbin Bleu
Chad Danforth
Monique Coleman
Taylor McKessie
Olesya Rulin
Kelsi Nielson
Chris Warren
Zeke Baylor

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kenny Ortega
Writers: Peter Barsocchini, Darrin Fletcher
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $253M — a 23.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 18 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "High School Musical Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kenny Ortega, shot by Daniel Aranyó. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by David Lawrence. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Seth Flaum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley French carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "The year of their lives begins.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kenny Ortega directs. Daniel Aranyó behind the camera. David Lawrence scores. Seth Flaum cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $253M — a 23.0× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 18 years ago.
3Part of the "High School Musical Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Kenny Ortega, shot by Daniel Aranyó. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by David Lawrence. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Seth Flaum shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley French carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "The year of their lives begins.".
9IMDB entry: tt0962726 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 8 themes, including "high school", "musical", "basketball", "sequel".
11Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Daniel Aranyó
Original score: David Lawrence
Editing: Seth Flaum
Production design: Mark Hofeling
Costume design: Caroline B. Marx
Makeup / hair: Jeanette Steadman
Stunt coordinator: Don Shanks
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $11,000,000
Box office: $252,909,177
Return: 2299% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): G
IMDB: High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)

Awards

Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie
MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance
MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Part of

High School Musical Collection

The High School Musical film series chronicles two high school students, Troy Bolton, captain of East High School’s basketball team (Wildcats) and Gabriella Montez, a shy top student. Both of them try out for the lead roles in their school's musical and quickly fall in love in the process, despite the lack of support from the rest of their classmates, one of them being Sharpay Evans and her brother sidekick Ryan Evans. The film also focuses on Chad Danforth, Troy's best friend and Taylor McKessie, Gabriella's best friend who fall in love, too.

Also by

Kenny Ortega

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-12-09
★ 6/10
It's final year at High School and "Troy" (Zac Efron) and "Gabriella" (Vanessa Hudgens) are a definite item together. Don't worry - the hormones have all been suitably Disneyfied so there's nothing beyond the briefest peck on the cheek as they cheese their way through the start of this final term before, yep, nemesis "Sharpay" (Ashley Tisdale) starts stirring again. They all have to face the prospect of post-graduation life and that means that they might not remain together. When "Gabriella" is accepted at Stanford university - quite a distance away from "Troy" who wants to continue to play basketball at the University of Albuquerque - the pair have to deal with the thought of a long-distance relationship and all the precariousness that entails. Meantime, there is trouble in the "Evans" camp as "Sharpay" and long suffering brother "Ryan" (Lucas Grabeel) have a parting of the ways. She sees solo stardom looming and he has other, more collegiate, plans. The story advances using some rather unmemorable songs and dances towards a conclusion that is actually quite funny, but only because there are a few just desserts dished out that have been a long time coming. There's much more of the savvily enthusiastic teacher "Ms. Darbus" (Alyson Reed) to return this more to the academic environment but by now I'd had enough of these precociously annoying youngsters and their increasingly unimaginative characterisations. At least, this time, the talented Grabeel gets a bit more of the spotlight but it lacks a hit song and without it, is all just sort of dwindles away.
daniel_carr2026-01-20
★ 3/10
After watching "The Greatest Showman" and seeing Zac Efron in that I tried watching some of his earlier movies but I'm sorry, I tried. Gave it my standard 10min but I couldn't take it ...