Sony’s First 50 GB Blu-ray Disc: ‘Click’

Sometimes one hopes the first film to be released in a new format will be significant. Instead, Sony ships Adam Sandler's "Click" as its first 50 GB Blu-ray disk.

Well, it might only be a footnote in the history of the motion picture industry, but you’d think Sony would have wanted that footnote to reflect on it in a good way. Or, at least, not in a bad way.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced its first 50 GB Blu-ray movie title will go on sale Tuesday, October 10. Given all the gravitas Sony has attached to its high-definition Blu-ray format, and in light of the Blu-ray’s looming format war with Toshiba’s competing HD DVD format, you’d think Sony might want to take the high road and make its first 50 GB disk a respected film sure to appeal to film buffs, movie fans, and the sort of people who invest thousands of dollars in surround sound, wide-screen home theaters, and who are most likely to be early adopters of Blu-ray.

Nope. Sony’s first 50 GB Blu-ray disk is Adam Sandler’s Click. Adam Sandler plays an overworked guy who gets a magical remote control which lets him pause, mute, skip, scan, and rewind reality.

The future of Sony’s 50 GB Blu-ray title releases only gets a little less bleary, with Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down scheduled for released November 14, and Will Farrell’s Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby due for release December 12. Other studios backing Sony’s Blu-ray technology have announced 50 GB titles as well: Universal plans to ship historical actioner Kingdom of Heaven November 14, and Lionsgate plans to ship spelunking horror flick The Descent in December.