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I am sure the news that High School Musical 3: Senior Year finished in first place is no surprise to any of you. This is one weekend, though, where I wished I had listened to many of these experts who had predicted low-40s for this movie instead of making my usual bone-headed bullish prediction. This flick made $42 million, which is about what many people in Hollywood expected, but lots of people thought the movie would do even better than that. Particularly, me.

After Friday night’s big $16.9 million haul, my prediction of $54 million for the weekend for Zac Efron and crew was looking pretty good. But the movie kind of sank after that night. It ends up with $42 million, which is still the best showing of all time for a musical, topping the $27.8 mil record set by Mamma Mia! earlier this year. The flick also raked in $40 million in international box office to be a global Number One hit.

The other record that fell this weekend: I read somewhere that High School Musical 3 set the biggest weekend opening ever for a live-action G-rated movie. Well, big deal! How many live-action G-rated movies have there been out there? Not too many, I’d say.

Saw V did pretty much the same business as the last Saw movie did, bringing in $30 million. So get ready for Saw VI, because this showing is pretty good.

The damages for the top ten movies are as follows:

So to sum up this weekend in a nutshell: once again, all these Oscar contenders and art-house movies are nowhere to be found anywhere near the top of the box office. None of the edgy flicks that movie fans like to talk about are near the top of the box office, either. Instead, it’s yet another win for a nice, clean movie this fall at the theaters. Aren’t you sick of this type of entertainment? I know I’m tired of this stuff, but movies like High School Musical 3 or Beverly Hills Chihuahua keep winning anyway.

By the way, I wouldn’t be shocked to see High School Movie 3 win next week’s box office race, too. Coming up next weekend is Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Given the absolutely miserable time this movie has had in getting marketed, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t do nearly the business that the Kevin Smith fans are hoping for. And too many teenage girls can’t get enough of Zac Efron. Maybe Changeling will mount some kind of challenge when it expands wide next week, but I doubt it. So be prepared for more of the same at the box office next week.

We will see you again later this week for another thrilling Reject Report!