the buzz log

The Hannah Montana brand gets its second big screen boost this weekend with “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” The latest outing takes the Disney Channel character—and star Miley Cyrus—from the cable TV confines to the real world, following the path of Lizzie Maguire and the "High School Musical" batch.

The tale of high school student by day, pop star by night takes an introspective turn: Miley Stewart (the HM alter-ego) re-evaluates her success by visiting her Tennessee hometown...not coincidentally, where Cyrus herself also hailed.

Here's something for Montana/Stewart/Cyrus to consider: While all still reap in solid adoration from the prepubescents, these alter egos aren't enjoying the same online popularity they once did.

Like back in February 2008, when musical documentary “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert” broke 3D weekend movie records. Search anticipation for "HM: The Movie" though is almost half that of the concert film—and ticket prices are a lot less for a non-3D flick.

Naturally, much has happened since HM's innocent debut in March 2006, which quickly captured lots of searches from the get-go) and later dominated the live concert scene and even Halloween costume lists.

Then, things got a little messy: Just when searches for "miley cyrus" surpassed those for "hannah montana," Cyrus got caught up in the Vanity Fair photo scandal, hooked up with an older man (who has since brought her "closer to the Lord"), and proved all-around a little more precocious then some fans, and moms of fans, really liked.

Cyrus may now be the bigger online draw than Hannah Montana. Here's how her movie compares to this weekend's premieres in online popularity:

Most Searched New Movies on Yahoo!, Opening This Weekend

1. "Hannah Montana: The Movie" (G)
2. "Dragonball Evolution" (PG)
3. "Observe and Report" (R)