During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 22 categories honoring films released in 1987.

[15] The award honors "creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production".

[21] In addition, after being held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for almost two decades, AMPAS decided to move the telecast to the Shrine Auditorium in order to accommodate more rehearsal time and take advantage of the large venue's seating capacity.

[23] Additionally, Goldwyn and Passetta originally planned to feature pre-recorded red carpet arrival footage of actors who had roles in the 59 previous Best Picture winners.

[26] To compensate for the missing portions of the script, Goldwyn heavily utilized comedians such as John Candy, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams to ad lib and improvise jokes.

Only Fatal Attraction (2nd), The Untouchables (4th), Good Morning Vietnam (10th), Throw Momma from the Train (14th), Full Metal Jacket (21st), Broadcast News (26th), Wall Street (30th), and Moonstruck (39th) were nominated for Best Picture, acting, directing, or screenwriting.

The other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were Beverly Hills Cop II (1st), Lethal Weapon (7th), The Witches of Eastwick (8th), Dirty Dancing (9th), Predator (11th), RoboCop (15th), Mannequin (23rd), The Princess Bride (38th), and Innerspace (45th).

"[32] Tom Shales from The Washington Post wrote, "Of hope there was little and of glory almost none last night at the 60th annual Academy Awards, telecast live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on ABC.

[34] The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 42.2 million people over its length, which was a 13% increase from the previous year's ceremony.

[36] The show also drew higher Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony, with 29.2% of households over a 49 percent share.