High School Musical 3 Shows Speed of DVD Counterfeiters

Posted by: Jack Ewing on October 31

How fast do the DVD counterfeiters operate these days? Yesterday, Oct. 30, I got out of a car in downtown Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and was mobbed by teenage boys hawking rubber sandals and other wares. The young entrepreneur who caught my ear was selling bootleg copies of Walt Disney Co.’s High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

I knew that the movie had opened barely a week earlier, because I had taken my daughter to see it. That’s how long it took for the film to make its way from Hollywood to the teeming streets of Africa.

I suppose Disney can congratulate itself for producing films that resonate in a poor, chaotic place like Maputo, where viewers must find it strange that American high school students spend their days singing and dancing. But I wouldn’t want to be the person in charge of defending Disney’s digital rights.

Don’t feel too bad for Disney, though. According to Bloomberg the film opened with $42 million in sales, the best showing ever for a film musical.