High School Musical 3 started shooting on May 3rd of this year and with a scheduled 40 days of filming, sometime this week or next the work should come to an end.

Now editing and about 90 days separates us from the third installment of the wildly-popular High School Musical series as High School Musical 3 is set to come out in late October. As if we as parents didn't end up buying about 101 different items from the HSM themed items, this time we'll have to cough up more cash since this one debuts in theaters. Having racked in bags of cash with the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds concert they released to theatres, expect this kind of stuff more often.

Yes dear fellow parents, you'll have to face the crowds at movie theaters to see the movie. Disney decided to cash in on the over-the-top interest in the series and release this one in first in the theater. Expect the tween/teen version of the new Star Wars movies over this one. I have this sad vision of parents sitting out in line, not unlike they probably did in the pre-internet days trying to get good tickets to rock shows.

For those who want to get in right mindset early, all of the major actors, director/choreographer Kenny Ortega and writer Peter Barsocchini all return for this senior year extravaganza. It wasn't a given that everyone would be back - several cast members held out for more money and Zac Efron is getting over three million just himself for this episode. I don't blame them, HSM series has made a killing based on those kids' work and they deserve more of the profits.

HSM3 centers on the core of the senior year high school experience - the prom and graduation.

"Everything's been stepped up a few notches, all the dances, and I think the songs are pretty catchy this time around. And it's our senior year, so we've got graduation and prom to look forward to. All fun things to have in a movie," Efron told People Magazine recently.

Somehow I have to expect that the prom will be fair more tame than most proms. I know I know, the whole thing is a leap of faith about almost everything, a fictionalized version of a squeaky clean high school where no one drinks, cheats, has sex or gets into real trouble - which is almost plausible since this is set filmed in Utah (but set in New Mexico). An over-bearing girl and public perception seems to be the major problems of the entire series anyway. But of course this is Disney and that's why our kids are seeing the movie.

This is the final installment for this gang but ala Saved by the Bell, Disney is probably going to try to restart the HSM franchise with another young group. Along those lines, there are three sophomores with roles in HSM3 - want to bet they form the core of HSM4? This might never end.