Sneak Previews...
cause for change?

Many films, once they are finished, are shown to advance audiences in sneak previews. The studios utilize this to test audience reaction. Sometimes, the results are startling...so much so, that the films are revised before the general release. Some examples.

• Fatal Attraction. In the movie that we’ve seen, Anne Archer plays the wife to Michael Douglas and ends up shooting Glenn Close in the bathtub. However, in the original ending, Close killed herself and Douglas was arrested for the murder.
  
  
• The Shining. If you saw this movie the first week it came out, you saw a different ending than most people. At first, the film ended with Shelley Duvall in the hospital recuperating and the manager of the overlook Hotel visiting her. However, it was decided that this was too anti-climatic and it was cut after week one.
  
  
• Apocalypse Now. It was actually filmed with two different endings. One featured the ending scene of explosions as the credits rolled. The other was no explosions, and no credits.
  
  
• Back to the Future. Although not screen tested to an audience, it was to many of the members of the studio after a third of the movie was shot. It was decided that the chemistry between the two lead actors just wasn’t working, so "Marty", played by Eric Stoltz...was replaced by Michael J. Fox and all of the scenes were re-shot.
  
  
• Death Becomes Her. In the original version, the Bruce Willis character escapes with a barmaid and finds happiness on his own away from the terrible twosome of Goldie Hawn and Meryl Street. However, all of the scenes of the barmaid, played by Tracey Ullman were taken out and a new ending was shot.