Disney’s Cable Ghetto Now Hollywood’s Richest Blockbuster Incubator

Disney’s back-ordered fleet of Brinks trucks had better arrive soon: High School Musical 3: Senior Year is tracking for a $US38 million opening weekend, with Beverly Hills Chihuahua anticipating another $US6 million in its fourth week of release. Those grosses would likely land the all-ages tandem together in the Top 5 at the box office — the first time two non-Pixar Disney titles have shared that space since 1994. Useless trivia? We think not — and we aren’t alone.

Nikki Finke has her own interesting read this morning, pointing to the even rarer phenomenon of a cable movie franchise so lucratively crossing over to the multiplex. Series are one thing, and rarely a lock themselves (Disney only had a Hannah Montana blockbuster at the ready because it brought cameras on tour with Miley Cyrus), but we’ll buy lunch at the Grill for the first reader who can name a made-for-TV feature that spawned a theatrical No. 1. (Opposite another cash cow like Saw 5, no less.) And then s/he can buy us a life.

We’ll have more fearless predictions tomorrow in our Defamer Attractions column, but in the meantime, expect Disney to have greenlighted Camp Rock 3D: Escape of the Jonases for IMAX by the the time you finish reading this sentence.

• FINAL WEEKEND TRACKING: ‘HSM3′ to Belt Out $US35M-$US38M [Fantasy Moguls]

• ‘HS Musical 3′ Owns Advance Box Office [DHD]