Under the Cherry Moon premiered in Sheridan, WY (after a resident won an MTV call-in contest) on 1 July 1986.
After the huge success of 1984's Purple Rain, Prince was given complete creative control and an almost unlimited budget to develop his follow-up. Becky Johnston was hired to write the script and Martin Scorsese was approached to direct, but declined. Mary Lambert (who had directed music videos for Madonna and Sheila E.) was hired but quit early in filming after disagreements with Prince. Prince then assumed directorial duties himself (since the production was in France, it did not violate the Directors Guild rule forbidding stars from taking over directing, the so-called "Eastwood Rule" from Clint Eastwood's firing of Philip Kaufman from 1976's The Outlaw Josey Wales).
While the soundtrack (released as Parade) would sell more than a million copies and be named as one of the year's best releases, Under the Cherry Moon failed to find an audience and was named as one of the worst films of 1986.
