The Panacolor film format was a 70mm format developed for proprietary use in a viewing device made by Panacolor Inc., a company established in 1957 to produce color film release prints (Anon., 1957: p. 10). In 1963, the company entered into the burgeoning film cartridge business, partnering with Zeiss Ikon of West Germany to develop a new type of film projector, which was designed to resemble a 19-inch television set (Anon., 1963: p. 24). The Panacolor cartridge contained 300 ft of 70mm film, capable of playing a feature film of up to two hours in length, or six separate segments, each 20 minutes in length. The film itself contained 12 rows of Super 8-sized images and 12 synchronized soundtracks (Anon., 1968). Leon W. Wells filed patents for the film format, cartridge and projector on behalf of Panopix Research Inc., a subsidiary of Panacolor Inc. 

Panacolor demonstrated a prototype of its “magazine projector” for stockholders in 1964, envisioning it for home, commercial and educational use (Anon., 1964b: p. 19). Ahead of a demo at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968, the system was promoted for its potential to bring films to more remote areas of the world with limited, or no, access to theaters (Anon., 1968c: p. 17). That same year, Gulf & Western Industries Inc., entered into an agreement with Panacolor to obtain marketing and distribution rights for the projector. (Anon., 1968d: p 8). Du Art Film Laboratories built a processing machine for the Panacolor 70mm film format (Anon., 1968a). Panacolor established a processing facility in Lodi, New Jersey, and priced the projector at $595, the equivalent of $5,384 in 2024 (Fox, 1968: p. 58). 

The next few years were spent promoting the projector and seeking agreements to print and distribute films. In 1971, Sensory Devices, Inc. landed a three-year contract to distribute films in bars, restaurants and hotels in the United States and Canada (Anon., 1971: p. 19). They referred to the system as the “Zeiss-Ikon Panacolor Mini-Theater" and sought out films of any rating (Anon., 1972: p. 23). The company had some success acquiring films, and the projector made its debut at the Commodore Hotel in New York in 1972. Hotel guests had the option of renting one of 25 films, for $4.50 each. The chosen film was inserted and locked into the projector before being rolled into the patron’s room (Anon., 1972: pp. 2, 70). While a variety of titles were offered, softcore adult films were the most popular by far, ushering in a new era for pay-per-view in the hotel industry (Alilunas, 2016: p. 55). The system was never formally introduced in bars or restaurants.  

In 1973, Panacolor entered into an agreement with 20th-Century Fox to distribute the projector and cassettes to hotels in the United Kingdom. It was introduced to four London hotels as the “Pik-A-Movie” system and it was reported that it was already available in 21 Sheraton hotels as well. (Anon.,1973c: p.61). By this time, Panacolor was pursuing deals in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand (Anon., 1973a: p. 17). They successfully brokered a contract with a distributor in South Africa, which was a promising location since the country did not have television at the time (Anon., 1973b: p. 51). However, by late 1973, it seems that none of these deals were moving forward. 20th-Century Fox chose not to continue their relationship with Panacolor and the “Pik-A-Movie” system, for which they had also contributed seed money (Anon., 1973e: p. 28). 

Despite the projector’s novel design and capabilities, it ultimately could not compete long term in a rapidly evolving market, with many different cartridge technologies and designs becoming available before videotape eventually took over (Kindred, 1972: p. 55). Panacolor struggled financially for the next year, and in 1974 Film Corp. gained a 48 per cent stake in the company (Anon., 1975: p. 13). In a 1977 press release, regarding an agreement between Film Corp. and Napcolour, Panacolor Inc. was referred to as a “general mail-order merchandiser” based in Philadelphia, indicating they had abandoned their 70mm format and the film cartridge business entirely (Anon., 1977: p. 17).