- Film plot was originally slated to be "Haunted" and follow the plot of a Halloween movie.
- The first film in the "High School Musical" series to go movie theaters.
- The soundtrack is fifty-one minutes long, making it the longest album of the film series. The original length for each of the first two soundtracks was thirty eight minutes.
- Gabriella has a photo of her and Troy from the second movie on her nightstand (from their lunch at the golf field). Troy has a photo of Gabriella from the first movie on his.
- Over 1,000 extras were used for the Graduation scene.
- With $42 million, holds the record the best opening ever for a movie musical. The former record holder was Mamma Mia! (2008).
- Sharpay's ringtone is "Fabulous" from the second movie.
- Gabriella's ringtone is "You Are The Music In Me" from the second movie.
- Unlike the first two movies, Sharpay's locker has two doors instead of one.
- This is the only movie in the film series in which Chad's father appears.
- It took 41 days to shoot this movie, which is longer than the first two films.
- Stan Carrizosa, the winner of ABC's summer reality show, "High School Musical: Get in the Picture" (2008), appears in a music video that is shown over the end credits of the theatrical release of the film. The show's other 11 finalists were featured in the music video as well.
- High School Musical 3 is the first film series to start out on TV, then move to a theatrical release. There have only been Movies that start in theaters and go onto T.V. A Christmas Story (1983) had a theatrical release but it was a sequel to 3 TV movies: "The Phantom of the Open Hearth", A (1976), "The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters", A (1982), and "The Star-Crossed Romance of Josephine Cosnowski", A (1983).
- Almost all of the song scenes in the movie were cut short unlike in the soundtrack album. In the first two movies, almost all were complete songs like in the soundtrack albums.
- In the "Now Or Never" scene, Chad jumps from a lying position when he was fouled. He also did that jump in the first movie, during "Stick To The Status Quo."
- As in the first film, Troy looks at an invisible watch on his wrist. This time it is in the lunch hall before Chad invites Taylor to prom.
- Rocketman's shirt number is 41. This is a reversal of Troy's number 14.
- The neon sign from the Merc Hotel in the DCOM Dadnapped (2009) (TV) is in the junkyard during the "Boys Are Back" scene.
- In the scene where Sharpay arrives at East High School (making her first appearance in the film) the instrumental music from the song "Fabulous" from the second movie is heard.
- During the scene where Ms. Darbus asks the kids on stage what their future plans are, the kids line up in the same type of formation as the movie A Chorus Line (1985). This is a reference to Alyson Reed who starred as Cassie in the film.
- Zac Efron injured his wrist whilst filming the spinning corridor scene featured in the song 'Scream'.
- If you look closely you can see all the leads in the movie are wearing matching gold rings with a red stone in it.
- Special copies of Teen Magazine and Seventeen Magazine were made for the "I Want it All" number. They feature Ashley Tisdale on the cover (replicas of their previous releases) and have the name "Sharpay" inserted where Ashley's name was previously.
- Zac Efron came into dance rehearsals 3 weeks late because he had been filming Me and Orson Welles (2008).
- David Reivers, who plays Mr. Danforth in this film, is the real-life father of Corbin Bleu, who plays Chad Danforth. They have played father and son in two other TV films, _Jump In! (2007)_ and Free Style (2008).
- Zac Efron repeatedly played pranks on the rest of the cast, throwing water balloons. As payback, the cast toilet papered his trailer and then soaked him with water guns.
- One of the songs, "Last Chance" was sung by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens at the 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009).
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: The schools each character is going to, and their major: Troy: Berkeley, Theatre (basketball scholarship) Gabriella: Stanford, Pre-law Chad: University Of Albuquerque, Undecided (basketball scholarship) Taylor: Yale, Political Science Sharpay: University of Albuquerque, Theatre Ryan: Juilliard, Choreography Kelsi: Juilliard, Music/Songwriting
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