Walt Disney is going to be very happy this weekend as their unprecedented TV-to-theater movie franchise High School Musical 3 raked in $16.5 million in Friday box office tickets, all but guaranteeing a $50+ million weekend (so says Slash Film) for the harmless teen movie. UPDATE: Slash Film was a bit off… HSM3 made an estimated $42 million over the weekend.

Personally, I thought High School Musical 2 was one of the worst movies I have seen in a very long time; though I am outside of the target market, I just don’t get it. The music is bad, the choreography terrible and the story so sanitized that I don’t get how anybody outside of the most protective of families could enjoy it. Maybe they mixed things up for High School Musical 3, but I highly doubt it.

Anyway, congrats to Disney for turning the most-watched TV movie franchise into a lucrative box office behemoth.

The best thing about High School Musical 3’s box office success? Lionsgate can’t claim complete victory as Saw V opened in second place. The bad news? The movie still made $12.3 million on Friday, good for about $29 million (UPDATE: $30 million) over the weekend. We’re starting to see the gleam come off the Saw movies, but only just. As long as the Saw movies continue to make more in their opening weekend than their entire budget, Lionsgate will continue to produce this crap.

Pride and Glory, the new movie starring Ed Norton and Colin Farrell, opened to only $2.2 million on Friday, good for just over $6 for the box office weekend.

The new teaser trailer for Saw V is now online, and while I have no interest in seeing the film (the last four have sucked, why won’t this one?), once again the Lionsgate marketing team has done a good job with this preview. Between the music and the simple footage, they keep you guessing until the last second – the perfect teaser trailer.

I hate the Saw movies. Despite what some people think, the first one was bad and they just got worse from there. Bad acting and directing gave way to one attempt after the next to shock the audience more and more, while becoming more convoluted and cocky with each outing. The fourth Saw movie was especially bad, the worst of the franchise.

Still, even though the main villain has been dead for over a full movie now, Lionsgate is milking its franchise once again with Saw V. I don’t blame them – audiences continue to swarm to this franchise for some God-awful reason. How much abuse can audiences take? Lionsgate is putting that question to the test.

Regardless, Lionsgate recently released a new Saw V movie poster, and I have to admit that it’s pretty damn good. Disturbing and creepy, it features Tobin Bell’s face plastered over someone else. Clever, and damn good marketing. Here’s the movie poster: