Loadmovie: first time not working, second time does

Hi

I want to load a external movie (swf) into my current movie. My syntax:

loadMovie(“movies/”+itemName+".swf","_root.popup.popup_bg.movieName");
loadVariables(“content/”+itemName+".txt","_root");
_root.popup.gotoAndPlay(2);
trace(_root.popup.popup_bg.movieName._y);

First line: Loading the movie into the instance
Second line: Loading some vars into my scene
third line: make the popup appear with an alpha tween
fourth line: proving the itemName is correct.

Problem:
First time running this script results in not showing my movieclip
Second time running this script everything works perfect.

Has anybody got any idea why my movie is not loading?
greetz, Tim