10 Movies Which Were Completely Changed After Test Screenings

6. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

It's hard to imagine Steven Spielberg being in a position where he's beholden to the whims of the studio - never mind that he would be faced with drastically changing the ending of one of his movies to satisfy the concerns of a test screen audience. But this is precisely what happened when working on his sci-fi classic, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. One cut of E.T. featured a different ending which didn't go down at all well with the test audiences - in this cut, rather than being picked up by his alien buddies and flying off home, E.T. dies. It's another notable example of audiences really not going for the downbeat endings, and in this case there's a good chance they may well have been right (think of all the distraught children bawling as they left theatres...). As it happens, Spielberg managed to have his cake and eat it. After being placed in quarantine by gun/Walkie Talkie wielding government agents (depending on which version you're watching), E.T. appears to die, only to return to life, leading more than a few film theorists to view the film as an allegory for Jesus Christ. Spielberg got his "death" scene and the audiences got the happy ending they were looking for. Win-win.