Fifty-eight years after THE PINK PANTHER premiered in Italy on Dec. 18, 1963, it’s remembered mostly for its animated opening titles character, who people think was the jewel thief Peter Sellers hunted as Inspector Clouseau.

Actually, the thief was The Phantom/Sir Charles Lytton and was played by David Niven. The Pink Panther was the priceless diamond he’d stolen — so named because while staring into its center a flaw could be seen that resembled a leaping panther. Originally, Niven was to have been the film’s star. The smaller role of Clouseau was to have been played by Peter — not Sellers, but Ustinov. Ava Gardner was to have played his wife, Simone, who cheated on him with Lytton.

Gardner quit when the producers wouldn’t hire the personal staff she demanded. Her exit also sent Ustinov packing. Director Blake Edwards, who’d made 1962 hit THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, wanted to replace Gardner with Janet Leigh. But she declined because PINK was filming in Italy and that would have kept her away from home too long. The role went to Capucine, who’d been in 1962’s WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, for which Edwards shot some uncredited additional scenes.

Edwards cast Sellers to play Clouseau. Sellers was best known for the 1962 drama LOLITA and for his many English comedies, including Richard Lester’s 1959 short THE RUNNING JUMPING & STANDING STILL FILM, which later inspired The Beatles to have Lester direct their 1964 movie debut A HARD DAY’S NIGHT.

When production began, Edwards shot many takes with his actors improvising. Sellers was great at improv and stole so many scenes that Edwards turned his supporting role into the starring role. Niven’s displeasure over that change was clear at a later Oscar ceremony when he asked that PINK’s famous theme by Henry Mancini not be his entrance music, explaining, “That was not really my film.”

It was, however, a film moviegoers loved. After opening in the U.S. on March 18, 1964, via United Artists, it did nearly $11 million, a sizable total then. It spawned nine sequels from 1963-93 plus two reboot sequels in 2006 & 2009. PINK’s animated Panther, designed by Hawley Pratt & Friz Freleng, wasn’t seen in the movie, itself, but was in the titles for all but two of the films. However, the Panther starred in his own theatrical cartoon series — starting with THE PINK PHINK, which won the short subject/cartoons, Oscar, in 1965 — and also had a Saturday morning TV series from 1969-80.

“Crazy…Certifiable…I think, had he not been Peter Sellers he very likely could have ended up in an institution, truly.”  – Blake Edwards

On January 1^st, Cinemark’s CEO Mark Zoradi will step down and pass the baton to his colleague Sean Gamble as the new chief at the country’s third-largest exhibition circuit.  In this interview with Business Insider, Zoradi expresses optimism about the future prospects for Cinemark and the movie business.

At last, the box office appears to be rebounding after two tumultuous years filled with theatre restrictions and a general unease with going out in public.  Zoradi added, “We’re in the midst of a strong fourth quarter.  The recovery really began in October because the content started to come back.” The movies that have done best this year have been the superhero tentpoles and horror genre, with the box office for films focused on young families and adult audiences lagging.  Zoradi expects that the full spectrum of moviegoers will re-emerge in 2022, helping to boost attendance and make week-to-week attendance more consistent.

As streaming has emerged, both studios and exhibitors have used the recent period to experiment with new release models, including straight-to-streaming, and the reduction or elimination of exclusive windows for theatres.  Cinemark has even begun to work with Netflix on playing some of their new releases for brief one or two-week runs in Cinemark theatres before their streaming debut.  Zoradi concludes that “We know that a movie will perform better if one, it’s a good movie; two, it has an exclusive window; and three, it has an extensive marketing campaign behind it.”

See also: Inside AMC’s Crazy, Bonkers, Upside-Down Year of Apes, Memes and Shorts and ‘West Side Story’ and the Decline of the Movie Theater (Wall Street Journal)

At an investor conference last Wednesday, Warner Bros.’ CEO Ann Sarnoff reaffirmed her studio’s decision to release their new features in 2022 with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.  Sarnoff explained that, despite the continued disruptions in moviegoing caused by the COVID pandemic, the studio had made commitments to theatres, agents and talent to release new features in theatres.

Warner Bros.’ 2021 experiment with day & date releasing may have resulted in an increased number of HBO Max subscriptions, but this came at the expense of box office returns.  Nine of the ten highest domestic grosses in 2021 were for movies released exclusively in theatres.  In addition, Warner Bros.’s shift today & date releasing created friction with talent, especially because many talent contracts included financial incentives based on box office performance.  In particular, a number of high-profile filmmakers were incensed, most notably Christopher Nolan who proclaimed, “some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service.”  After making his films with Warner Bros. over the last 20 years, Nolan has since decided to work with Universal on his next feature.

Evidently, Warner Bros. execs have determined that the benefits of exclusive theatrical releasing once again outweigh its limitations.

Industry results have been trending down since Thanksgiving, and were not helped much by the soft opening of WEST SIDE STORY on 12/10.  The 49^th film week of the year (ending on December 16^th) produced only 39% of the same week in 2019.  The most recent four-week run rate dropped down to 48% of the same period of 2019.  Pre-SPIDER-MAN, results from the fourth quarter of 2021 had dipped to 63% of the same quarter in 2019.  After fifty weeks, the year-to-date performance is stuck at 36% of 2019 returns.  Of course, the record-breaking opening of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME will reverse this downward trend and give exhibition a much-needed boost to finish out the year.  What’s more, additional reinforcements arrive this Wednesday when SING 2, THE MATRIX RESSURECTIONS and THE KING’S MAN open on 12/22.