The summary for this entry was completed with participation from the AFI Academic Network. Summary was written by participant Gonzalo Ramirez, a student at University of California, Los Angeles, with Jonathan Furner as academic advisor.

Curse of the Pink Panther was a working title for the film, as stated in a 21 Sep 1977 HR brief.
       End credits include the following written statement: “Filmed at Shepperton Studio Centre, Shepperton, Middx. England, and on location in France and in Hong Kong B.C.C. in conjuction with B.B. & M. Film Co-Ordinators. The Producers gratefully acknowledge the co-operation of Seiko Watches, Minolta Corporation, Chantiers Navals d’Antibes.”
       A 5 Jul 1978 Var article reported the budget as roughly $9 million; however, in a 12 May 1982 DV “Just for Variety” column, Army Archerd stated that the film cost $12 million. According to a 19 Dec 1977 Box news item, principal photography began 2 Nov 1977 in Paris, France. A 23 Nov 1977 Var brief announced that production had moved to Shepperton Studios in London, England, where shooting was completed late Jan 1978, as noted in a 27 Jan 1978 HR announcement. Filming resumed in Hong Kong on 5 Feb 1978, to coincide with a Chinese New Year celebration, according to a 1 Feb 1978 HR item, and on 21 Mar 1978, the company moved to Nice, France, as reported in a DV item of the same date. Principal photography was completed the weekend of 15-16 Apr 1978, according to a 19 Apr 1978 Var announcement.
       Three hundred guests, including seventy-five members of the press, were flown to Oahu, HI, for a press junket and preview screening of the film, as reported in the 5 Jul 1978 Var. For the weekend-long event, which cost United Artists (UA) $300,000, the Kuilima Hyatt hotel was decorated in a “Pink Panther” motif and guests received bags filled with Pink Panther merchandise upon arrival. Footage from the preview junket was included in an hour-long television special, That’s Panthertainment, set to air 16 Aug 1978, according to an “On Location” column in the 15 Aug 1978 HR. The special was produced in a rushed three weeks, and included interviews with the cast as well as out-takes from the five previous Pink Panther films.
       According to a 22 Mar 1978 HR article, associate producer Tony Adams had collected over $7 million in “blind bid advances” from domestic exhibitors four month’s prior to the film’s release. The world premiere was set to take place 13 Jul 1978 at a benefit screening at the Odeon Leicester Square theatre, according to a 5 Jul 1978 Var brief, with Prince Charles set to attend and an estimated $50,000 to be raised for the British Newspaper Press Fund and Welsh Environmental Foundation. The film would open six days later, on 19 Jul 1978, at New York City’s Ziegfeld Theatre and Los Angeles, CA’s Cinerama Dome, where a giant, inflatable Pink Panther was erected outside the theater. Shortly after the New York and Los Angeles openings, five hundred prints were released in the U.S. and Canada. A 19 Dec 1978 HR brief noted that the inflatable Pink Panther was later sent to Tokyo, Japan, where it was suspended from a skyscraper in Ikebukero to promote the Japanese opening.
       According to a 12 Jul 1978 HR brief, the Pink Panther films were UA’s top sellers in merchandising at the time, with roughly forty companies licensed to manufacture Pink Panther products. A Jul 1978 UA press release named several of the items in production, including: Pink Panther-themed soap, bath mitts, and toothbrush holders from Avon; greeting cards and party supplies from Hallmark Cards, Inc.; a Pink Panther chatter pet from Mattel, Inc.; comic books, puzzles, and coloring books from Western Publishing Company; and stereo slides and viewers from GAF Corporation. Prior to the film’s release, the Pink Panther animated character became Safeco Insurance of America’s official spokesperson, and a seventy-five acre Pink Panther-themed park and campsite was erected in Slidell, Louisiana, with a lagoon and “huge skateboard areas.” A novelization was set to be released by a British publisher, New English Library, as stated in a 12 Jul 1978 Var item, and a soundtrack album was distributed by UA Records, according to a 6 Jul 1978 HR article, which noted that the first shipments of the album did not credit composer Henry Mancini on the labels; according to HR, UA Records’ chief, Artie Mogull, promised to correct the error.
       Critical reception was mixed; in a 16 Jan 1979 LAT item, Sellers expressed his own disappointment in the film, stating, “[the film] was made out of nothing. Neither Blake nor I was ready to make it, but UA put such pressure on us that we said: ‘OK, we’ll do our best.’” Regardless, the picture was a commercial success, taking in a domestic gross of $31,405,836 after seven weeks of release, according to an 8 Sep 1978 HR item.
       Henry Mancini received a Grammy award nomination for Best Album of Original Score for a film.
       The Revenge of the Pink Panther was the last film in the Pink Panther series in which Peter Sellers starred, although a 1982 sequel, Trail of the Pink Panther (see entry), featured unused footage of Sellers as “Chief Inspector Clouseau” from previous films, as noted in Vincent Canby’s 17 Dec 1982 NYT review. Although a 16 Jan 1979 LAT news item announced that Sellers planned to reprise his starring role in a Pink Panther film to be directed by Sydney Poitier, Sellers died 24 Jul 1980, before the project came to fruition.