10 Movies Saved By One Single Cut
9. Cutting Sloane's "Sexist" Dialogue - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is such a relentlessly charming movie that it's tough to consider the film was ever at risk of not finding an audience, but test screenings indicated one specific moment that very nearly tanked the entire thing.
According to former Paramount VP Lindsay Doran, there was originally a brief exchange after the parade sequence where Sloane (Mia Sara) says, "A girl can always bailout and have a baby and get some guy to support her," while suggesting that men have it much harder than women in life.
This resulted in the film receiving incredibly low test scores from young female viewers, who noted their particular dislike for the single line in the feedback cards.
Though producer Tom Jacobson insists the line was meant to be an "ironic criticism" of that perspective rather than an endorsement of it, it clearly didn't hit with viewers the way the filmmakers intended, and so the decision was made to snip it.
As a result, young female test scores skyrocketed approximately 40 points, which Doran says is one of the most dramatic test screening improvements she's ever seen, and all it came down to was a single dud line of dialogue.
Check out an interview about the scene in the clip below (at 1:03:35):