When it was announced that Alice Walker's (b. 1944) Pulitzer Prize-winning third novel The Color Purple (1982) was to be filmed in 1985, there was reason for considerable optimism about the result. Hollywood's top moneymaking director Steven Spielberg had decided to direct the film with Walker's approval. Quincy Jones had joined the company as a producer, and young talents Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Margaret Avery had signed for the major roles of Celie, Sofia, and Shug.

As the year's Academy Award nominations were announced, it seemed that The Color Purple might sweep the board. Nominated for eleven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and three acting awards (Goldberg, Winfrey, and Avery), the film faltered at the presentation, winning none of the honors. The big winner that year was Out of Africa (directed by Sidney Pollack and starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep), which won many of the awards for which The Color Purple had been nominated. The Color Purple won some secondary awards (a Golden Globe for Goldberg), but it finished out of the running for the most prestigious ones.

While The Color Purple earned respectable grosses during its first six months of release (approximately $94 million), it was also greeted with considerable criticism during this period. Many would later argue that the harsh reception of the film, particularly from the African-American community, hurt both its earnings and its award potential, and left a lingering bad taste among the various participants in the film.