Is it possible that the American public is losing interest in teen movies? Universal’s latest foray into the genre entitled “Sydney White,” starring Amanda Bynes, bombed its opening weekend at the end of September. It was sixth overall at the box office. The top movie that weekend was “Resident Evil: Extinction.”

There is certainly no lack of new releases in the genre, but so few have made their mark on the landscape of pop culture. The exception, of course, is “High School Musical,” but beyond that there are few teen movies in recent memory that have truly had an impact.

Instead, the past several years have been peppered with such downers as “Raise Your Voice,” starring Hillary Duff as an unsure teen who learns to believe in herself, and “John Tucker Must Die,” starring Brittany Snow as a self-conscious teen who learns to believe in herself. One would think that the troubled teen demographic alone would boost ticket sales.

“Sydney White” is unique as far as teen movies go. The story starts off with Sydney (Amanda Bynes), a tomboyish teen, going off to college and attempting to join her mother’s extremely prissy sorority as an ill-fated attempt to make friends and discover a sense of sisterhood. Unsurprisingly, this attempt goes poorly, and Sydney soon finds herself friendless and homeless. She’s taken in by a group of seven outcasts, whom she soon inspires to rise up and make a stand against the Greek system, which monopolizes campus resources for themselves.

“Sydney White” actually manages to explore some relatively deep political themes. The queen bee of the Greek life system, Rachel Witchburn (Sara Paxton), bases her campaign for campus president on maintaining the status quo, wherein 20 percent of the students control 80 percent of campus resources.

It may not be the most subtle of allegories for our own socio-economic system, but it is an effective one. Naturally, Sydney defeats her in the election by rallying every misfit on campus to her cause at the last minute.

The movie falls short, however, when relying on standard teen movie clichés. Sydney is, for all intents and purposes, a troubled teen who learns to believe in herself. Her relationship with Tyler Prince (Matt Long), the “frat guy who’s not like all those other frat guys” is an exhausted cliché.

Perhaps it’s the clichés that audiences are getting tired of. Take into account the most popular teen movies of the past. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” certainly had the troubled teen element, but the movie’s real focus was the hijinks. Ferris Bueller had his problems, but they were the type that could be dealt with by a sensationally wacky car chase.

“The Breakfast Club” was successful because it dealt with realistic issues for teens in a realistic situation. You would not think that a bunch of people sitting around talking about their feelings could be as engrossing as it was, but there’s a reason everybody’s familiar with it.

“Ten Things I Hate About You” had all the trappings of a cliché teen movie, but made up for it by being one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” ever to light the silver screen. Finally, “High School Musical” distracted from its formulaic plot devices with creative song and dance sequences.

“Sydney White” was undone by the clichés. It was an original take on a classic story, but slathered in so much of what movie producers think audiences want that you could barely see through it.

It all comes down to consumption. Hollywood only exists in its current state because it makes money. The producers in the big movie studios give the green light to films they believe audiences will pay money to see.

While adult audiences might occasionally see through this ruse and refrain from seeing any crap that comes out, teenagers, by and large, have seemingly disposable incomes and nothing better to do with their lives.

Teen movies don’t even need a story anymore. Just slap a popular young actor/actress on a set, put a popular song in the background, record for 15 seconds, and play the thing in the after-school hours on Toon Disney, and you have got yourself a hit, because most teenage audiences will watch anything.

Unfortunately, teenagers are not nearly as stupid as shows like “Laguna Beach” would have you believe, and insulting them with drivel is not going to keep working. Not as long as there are better movies playing.

The landscape of teen movies has changed. Plots are recycled, characters are one-dimensional, and depth is at an all-time low. It remains to be seen whether or not the genre’s time as a staple of the frequent movie-goers diet is at an end.

“Sydney White” came close to revival, but that cliché poisoned apple proved just a little too much.