Test screenings are the ultimate Hollywood bugaboo. Directors tend to hate them, feeling like the audience’s feedback messes with their visions and can potentially ruin whatever artistic statement they were hoping to make. For producers, they’re a headache, as they sometimes result in spending more time and money to re-edit the film. But for movie fans, they can be a bane or a boon.

While some test audiences have reinforced executive meddling that ultimately ruined films, others have not only added to the films they previewed, but they actually helped shape those movies into the huge hits they ultimately became. In some cases, if the directors had gotten their way, film history would have taken on a different shape. We’d be living in a world where Audrey II triumphs over Audrey and Seymour and a reality where Alex Forrest succeeds in framing Dan Gallagher for murder — and nobody wants that! Here are 16 movies that were saved by test audience reactions.

The original ending of “Pretty in Pink” had ambitious high school senior Andie Walsh (Mollie Ringwald) get together with her pining best friend, Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), during their prom. It was a conclusion that test audiences literally booed, rising to their feet in anger. This sent director Howard Deutch into a tailspin. A quick five-page revision, courtesy of writer John Hughes, and a one-day reshoot ensured that Andie ends up with rich but ultimately principled kid Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy), while Duckie connects with a new girl who smiles at him at the dance. Andie kisses Blane in the parking lot, class lines are crossed, and the ’80s-style Cinderella story reaches its peak.

Audiences and the actors themselves have since debated this last-minute choice. Yet without audience intervention, we wouldn’t have one of the most romantic kisses in ’80s movie history, so in the end, it all worked out for the best.

The original “Little Shop of Horrors” ending is a classic case of something working far better on the stage than it does on the screen. In the stage musical, Audrey (Ellen Greene), Seymour (Rick Moranis), and all of New York City fall to the might of Audrey II and her children. The audience is left with a warning from Crystal (Tichina Arnold), Ronette (Michelle Weeks), and Chiffon (Tisha Campbell) — don’t feed the plants! 

The Frank Oz-directed film version initially shot an alternate ending, a 23-minute spectacular tour de force filled with stop-motion effects. Unfortunately, when their efforts were revealed to a test audience, the reaction was one of horror and shock, not mirth and laugher. “For every musical number, there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic… until Rick and Ellen died, and then the theatre became a refrigerator, an ice box,” Oz told Entertainment Weekly. Audience approval scores peaked at thirteen percent. That resulted in a quick reshoot that sees Seymour electrocute Audrey II and escape to suburban bliss with Audrey — while a little Audrey II bud grows in the garden.

When it comes to the comedic world of the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series, one wouldn’t expect audience intervention to be an important part of the creative process. But test audiences hated the original ending to “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” which saw Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) take Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken) hostage with his BB gun. Instead of holding a security guard (John Candy) at gunpoint and experiencing a day of magic in the completely empty park, Clark made Roy and his executive friends dance at gunpoint for his amusement.

“[The audience] went strangely quiet and did not laugh again for the rest of the picture,” director Harold Ramis recalled in a DVD commentary (via Entertainment Weekly). Ramis realized that the audience was miffed that, after such a long buildup, they were denied a visit to Wally World just as much as the Griswolds were, and rectified things with his now legendary conclusion.

“Sweet Home Alabama” is a simple romcom that pits the will of a southern girl gone citified (Reese Witherspoon) against her hometown ex-husband (Josh Lucas) and her upper-crust fiancé (Patrick Dempsey). In the end, Melanie (Witherspoon) picks Jake (Lucas), but the original ending was so appalling, it needed to be reshot to match the lighter tone of the rest of the movie.

In the original conclusion, Melanie goes to the beach to find Jake as lightning arcs across the sky. The movie cuts to Jake carrying an unconscious Melanie into the reception and announcing her death via lightning strike — only to reveal she’s playing a prank when she rises from the “dead.” Test audiences did not find the “felony Melanie” ending to be in good taste and let the movie’s producers know, leading to a much more conventional, crowd-pleasing ending.

Not every character, let alone a romcom heroine, can cause audiences to hate them so much that they want them to live a lonely, miserable life. But Julianne (Julia Roberts) from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” is just such a character — at least according to the people who previewed the film. In the original ending, Julianne meets a new fellow played by John Corbett at Michael (Dermot Mulroney) and Kimmy’s (Cameron Diaz) wedding reception, which angered the audience.

“They wanted her dead,” director PJ Hogan told Entertainment Weekly. “They just couldn’t understand her motives.” This time, the studio protested the data that they’d received from the viewers. Since Roberts was the main attraction and the notion of her ending up alone was verboten, Julianne’s friendship with George (Rupert Everett) was expanded, providing a happy out for people who hate the character and those who hope she becomes a much better friend in the future.

“Legally Blonde” ends in such a perfect way, with Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) delivering a graduation speech while onscreen text informs the audience of the characters’ futures, that it’s impossible to imagine any other conclusion. But the movie originally ended very differently, with Emmett (Luke Wilson) kissing Elle on the courthouse steps after the trial and a flash-forward to Elle handing out fliers for her Legally Blonde Defense Fund alongside a newly blonde Vivian (Selma Blair).

Test audiences disliked this ending from the get-go, thinking it wasn’t a strong enough conclusion for Elle because it centered too much on the film’s romance. “They knew that this was not a movie about a girl getting a guy,” co-writer Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith told Entertainment Weekly. A new ending was promptly conceived in the theater lobby at the test screening, and a film classic was born.

Test audiences had mixed feelings about the original ending of “Scott Pilgrim vs the World,” in which Scott (Michael Cera) ends up with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) instead of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Director Edgar Wright had hoped for a bittersweet, open-ended feeling that reflected “The Graduate,”  but fans at test screenings fought about the ending, dividing into firm Ramona and Knives camps with all of them generally dissatisfied about the two women were treated.

In response, Wright rewrote the ending, making it an open-ended celebration of the uncertainty of love. Knives pushes Scott and Ramona to get back together, and the pair meet in a parking lot. The future opens up before them as they vow to “try again,” getting one more go-round from the universe.

It was the thriller that put the fear of God in adulterers everywhere, but it ends with a burst of mama-lion protectiveness. After Alex (Glenn Close) literally boils Dan’s (Michael Douglas) son’s bunny and kidnaps him as well, he drowns her in the family’s tub. His wife, Beth (Anne Archer), then puts Alex down with a few well-placed bullets when she leaps from the tub to give audiences just one more scare. But the original ending is much more complex. In it, Alex carefully stages her own suicide, setting the scene to make Dan look like a murderer. The police cart him away, and only Beth knows the truth, via a note from Alex.

But test audiences were firmly on Dan’s side and wanted Alex to die. Archer and Close fiercely opposed the new ending, but Douglas supported it and it was ultimately filmed. Audience interference led to “Fatal Attraction” becoming one of the most iconic thrillers of the 1980s, scoring six Academy Award nominations. But while test audiences may have helped give us one of the greatest jumpscares of all time, the original ending had a fitting punch as well.

“Blade Runner” is a movie whose story differs depending on which cut of the film you’re watching, and test audiences contributed many of these changes to the final theatrical cut. Switches included streamlining the narrative via Harrison Ford’s iconic but somewhat controversial and confusing voiceover and making several narrative cuts for clarity’s sake. They also influenced the film’s happy ending.

In the original cut, Rick Deckard (Ford) and the replicant, Rachel (Sean Young), enter an elevator as they head into an uncertain future where Rachel’s lifespan may be incredibly finite. The theatrical cut replaces this with Ford’s narration, in which Rick declares a more hopeful future for the couple, and a more open one. In subsequent cuts, the narration has been removed, the hopeful ending excised, but it’s hard to deny that test audiences had a major impact on the version initially seen by fans of the film, warts and all.

The original ending of “Thor: The Dark World” sees the titular Asgardian hero (Chris Hemsworth) ascend to the throne of his kingdom while his brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), perishes, and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) breaks up with Thor so they can pursue their individual goals and ambitions in life. Thor’s climb to the throne is assisted by Odin’s (Anthony Hopkins) realization that his son isn’t blinded by his attraction to Jane and that his love for her is another positive quality that proves he’s ready to take on the mantle of leadership.

Test audiences didn’t buy Loki’s death, necessitating reshoots that kept the trickster god in play via subterfuge. The original ending was replaced with Loki shapeshifting into Odin and revealing himself. Additional scenes were also added, inverting the original, much darker plot of the movie and changing the tone of the film. the end result is a movie that fans had mixed feelings about but ultimately helped build the MCU up in an interesting way.

“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” is a film that was completely reshaped by test screenings. The original cut ended when Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) is kidnapped Patty Hearst-style, and her colleagues have to save her. Audiences balked at this conclusion, as well as several other plot points, resulting in DreamWorks giving the film’s producers a generous stipend to re-film the ending and the offending scenes.

“We just lost the audience,” Will Ferrell explained on Applegate’s podcast, “Messy” (via Variety). “When it was the news team and all of us interacting, we would get them back. We had to basically reshoot the ending.” Now, the movie ends with Burgundy (Farrell) saving Corningstone from a group of angry pandas and a flash-forward that explains where the KVWN Channel 4 news team ends up — all iconic moments that wouldn’t exist if the film’s first audiences hadn’t given it a 50 out of 100.

“Army of Darkness” is a rare film that managed to have its cake and eat it, too, having been released in two different formats thanks to focus groups. The original ending had Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) take too many drops of “the juice” the Wiseman (Ian Abercrombie) boils up, resulting in him sleeping for much longer than intended, waking up alone in a post-apocalyptic London and promptly going mad.

Much to Sam Raimi and Campbell’s expressed annoyance, test audiences hated this downer of a conclusion. At the behest of Universal, they quickly filmed a more triumphant conclusion in which Ash wakes up at the proper time and goes back to his job at S-Mart, only to realize he didn’t say the words properly and a Deadite has followed him home. He kills the demon, kisses the girl, and spouts forth some iconic catchphrases.

Interestingly enough, UK audiences received the original ending to the film, along with several extra moments that change the tone of the movie to a degree, including a love scene between Ash and Sheila (Embeth Davidtz). But without focus groups, catchphrases like “Hail to the king, baby” would never have entered the public lexicon, a sad notion indeed.

Without test audiences — and the intervention of Sylvester Stallone — fans would have said goodbye to John Rambo at the end of “First Blood.” The original ending follows the David Morrell book and has Rambo (Stallone) commit suicide — in the film’s case, by requesting Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna) shoot him. It was a denouement director Ted Kotcheff championed, feeling that it mirrored the actual agony suffered by the real-life Vietnam veterans he interviewed for the film.

Neither Stallone nor test audiences, however, took to that conclusion. Stallone protested the conclusion right after filming Rambo’s death scene, noting that the trauma Rambo goes through before the ending means he’d suffered enough. Kotcheff came up with the film’s new conclusion on the fly, and they filmed it on the spot. Which is a good thing, because when the original ending played at a Las Vegas test screening, the audience was not thrilled. “There was a dead silence. Then a voice said: ‘If this director is in the audience, he should be strung up from the nearest lamppost,'” Kotcheff recalled for a making-of documentary attached to a “First Blood” DVD release (via Yahoo!).

This is an interesting case of what British test audiences find acceptable in a film versus what American audiences will like. The original ending for the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice” sees Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) having an intimate conversation alone at Pemberley after their wedding. It ends with him asking her how she should be addressed on a daily basis and with them kissing under the stars as he calls her “Mrs. Darcy.” This ending, naturally, isn’t in the Jane Austen book — which shocked British audiences, who found the creative choice to be blasphemous and against the spiritual intent of the work.

But while British audiences hated this change, American test audiences swooned for the payoff, which meant it was in for North American markets. When even the Jane Austen Society pooh-poohed the ending, the twist was cut for the UK. Instead, that version ends when Elizabeth and Mr. Bennett (Donald Sutherland) discuss her happiness — which does occur in the book.

“Star Trek” fans are notorious for having big opinions, so perhaps it’s not shocking that their intervention actually saved a fictional life. “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” originally ends with Spock (Leonard Nimoy) passing away in a much more definitive way, with his casket being sent out the ship’s hatch and it bursting into a blinding flash of light. This would have definitely put the kibosh on Spock’s resurrection, which is what Nimoy supported at the time, since he was done with the character and hoped to move on to a directing career.

Test audiences, however, were not keen on the notion of Spock dying for good. In fact, word about the ending leaked out before the film was released, and even in those pre-internet days, the reaction was volatile. Death threats rained down on Nimoy, and fans even took out ads in trade magazines to stop the character from dying. Nimoy had to be talked into it, but Spock did indeed survive and continued to appear within the “Star Trek” franchise until Nimoy’s own death.

In keeping with its utterly brutal portrayal of how the rage virus impacts all of Britain, the original ending of “28 Days Later” saw Jim (Cillian Murphy) dying of his wounds in the abandoned hospital while Selena (Naomie Harris) and Hannah (Megan Burns) try desperately to save his life. They would fail and be left alone, still in their red dresses after their encounter with Major West (Christopher Eccleston). But Selena refuses to give in and accept death, telling Hannah that they would keep moving ever onward in spite of losing their companion.

Test audiences rebelled at this ending, feeling that Jim had suffered more than enough by this point. “The hospital ending was the ending I’d written,” the film’s writer, Alex Garland, told Inverse. “Jim dies and the two girls set off into the world — who knows what happens to them? It tested really badly. Not just badly but really badly.” Luckily, several different endings had been filmed, and the happier alternate ending — with Jim, Selena, and Hannah being rescued — was selected for its release.