The Lizzie McGuire Movie

Lizzie McGuire ended after two seasons, and Disney sent its finale to theaters. The Lizzie McGuire Movie was the first theatrical film based on a Disney Channel property, directed by Jim Fall from a script by Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter and John J. Strauss, and shot on location in Rome in the fall of 2002 with some scenes in Vancouver. Fall had previously made the R-rated gay romance Trick and saw the overlap: "Both movies end in a kiss, both movies have musical numbers, and both movies have cute boys."

The story picks up after junior-high graduation, where Lizzie trips on stage and brings the curtain down on her class while her brother Matt films it. On the class trip to Rome, chaperoned by future principal Angela Ungermeyer (Alex Borstein), an Italian pop star named Paolo spots her at the Trevi Fountain and tells her she is the double of his estranged singing partner Isabella. He claims Isabella lip-syncs and talks Lizzie into standing in for her at the International Music Video Awards; she fakes illness to rehearse, Gordo takes the blame and gets sent home, and the McGuires fly to Rome after Matt finds the gossip-site photos. The real Isabella, voiced in song by Hilary's sister Haylie Duff, exposes Paolo as the actual lip-syncer by switching on his microphone, and Lizzie finishes "What Dreams Are Made Of" alone before a rooftop kiss with Gordo. Miranda is absent, explained away as a family trip to Mexico City; Lalaine had left late in the second season, and a 2024 history of the Disney Channel reported a falling-out with Duff behind the exit.

It opened on May 2, 2003, to $17.3 million, second behind X2, and finished at $55.5 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. Critics called it harmless fluff; Roger Ebert gave it two stars and said Borstein's chaperone was the only really delightful thing in it, while Entertainment Weekly rated it a B-plus. Duff won the Teen Choice Award for female movie breakout star, and the DVD sold 2.9 million copies. In later years the film built a strong cult following.

A sequel went into early development and was shelved over creative differences between Duff and Disney. A Disney+ revival announced in 2019 brought the cast back and stalled in January 2020 when showrunner Terri Minsky left; it was cancelled that December.