10 Risky Film Moments Directors Thought They'd Lose You
7. The Ending - Big
Tom Hanks' classic 1988 romantic comedy Big follows a young boy, Josh, who makes a wish to become "big" and transforms into an adult version of himself (Hanks) overnight.
The film is centered around Josh's romance with his eventual co-worker Susan (Elizabeth Perkins), which becomes immensely complicated at film's end when Josh makes a wish to become a child again.
This obviously brings his and Susan's relationship to an abrupt end, with Josh returning home to his relieved mother while Susan is left to suddenly ponder a life without Josh - and the baffling moral ambiguity of her romance with him.
It's an extremely bittersweet ending for Susan, and one which director Penny Marshall knew very well would risk losing the audience in the final stretch. Nevertheless, she stood firm during discussions with Fox about changing the ending:
"At one point, the studio wanted her to [become young again]...[but] this was the script that the studio bought, and if they were worried about the ending being bittersweet, they should have worried about it a few years earlier."
This was ultimately another example of a smart filmmaker knowing their material better than the studio and having faith in audiences, as Big went on to gross more than $150 million worldwide and receive two Oscar nominations - for Best Actor (Hanks) and Best Original Screenplay.