Marketed Wrong
This movie had potential to be a hit had it not been marketed as High school Musical when it is more like School of Rock. It has a darker edgier vibe and the commercials were "Disney-fied"...big mistake.
shareI completely agree.
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their first mistake was pushing Vanessa Hudgens on everybody thinking she'd draw in the HSM crowd - she's a decent actress, but I think it was a mistake casting her. I always thought the girlfriend should've been Alyson Michalka. I really cared about her character.
Vanessa's was kinda two-dimensional and I had a hard time caring about her. If I could've put anyone in that role, it would've been Demi Lovato - she would've shredded that last song to bits!
It was mis-marketed as a High School Musical/Camp Rock clone but was completely different.
It's a tough call how they should have marketed it. I suppose they should have pushed it as a teenager film instead of a tween film.
It probably would have sold to the tweens anyway because whatever the age group, they always want to see a film that caters to an audience older than they are.
They could drawn in the HSM crowd if their promotion wasn't so half assed. (Summit has a long strong of promotional failures irrespective of the quality of their films, Hurt Locker, Next Day Air ecetera)
The problem was that they needed to completely artificially create a fake 'aura' around this film and Vanessa as Gabriella from HSM was it. Everyone saw through their ruse and thought this film was just a lame version of High School Musical, with no Troy and Gabriella. Everyone was turned off from the movie.