Efron’s former love interest Vanessa Hudgens tried to distance herself from her sunny “High School Musical” character by playing a scantily-clad asylum inmate who engages in fantastical warfare in “Sucker Punch.” Audiences didn’t buy it. The movie got awful reviews, earning only a 22% freshness rating ( The Post gave it zero stars). Commercially, the movie made $7 million more than its $82-million budget, but that was mostly due to overseas ticket sales. Hudgens bombed at the box office before. 2009’s “Bandslam,” about a group of misfits who form a rock band, had a $20M budget but only made $12.2M worldwide. Clay Enos
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“High School Musical” alum Ashley Tisdale also experienced box-office failure in the Fox family comedy, “Aliens in the Attic,” which would have been lucky to break even with its $57.9 million gross. The movie’s production budget was $45M, but if Fox spent more than $13M marketing the film, they’d still be in the red. AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN.COM
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Before “HSM,” Hilary Duff was a Disney star with her “Lizzie McGuire” show and movie, and she also hit pay dirt in an array of other frothy films. But the 2008 political satire, “War, Inc.,” in which she plays an Asian pop star was a disaster, only pulling in $1.3 million globally. AP
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Disney star Selena Gomez has been slightly more successful playing other kids on the big screen. This past summer, she joined “Gossip” gals Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy in Fox’s “Monte Carlo.” The “princess and the pauper”-esque film had a $20 million budget and made almost $40 million worldwide. The year before, Gomez helped Fox’s well-reviewed “Ramona and Beezus” rake in $27 million worldwide, almost double its $15 million budget. 20th Century Fox Licensing
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Other Disney stars have done well when they haven’t strayed too far from their small-screen personas. Raven-Symone, best known in tween circles for “That’s So Raven,” raked in $51.5 million in 2008 with “College Road Trip.” BARRY WETCHER/ SMPSP
