Focus Group Ending/Headscratchers

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• How can these even get made? Surely if the film's in a finished enough state to be shown to a test audience it's too late to plan, script, budget, go on location for, hire actors for and shoot a brand new ending?
  • With the original Final Destination, they brought back the relevent actors, and redid the scenes related to the plot the focus group didn't like (and as such River never got pregnant), which completely changed the ending as well. IIRC the commentary.
  • It's never too late for anything with enough money (and maybe a bit of slack on your release date). Sure, it's a substantial investment to call the necessary stars back and re-rent all your equipment, but it can be worth it (see Star Trek Generations, for instance). If your focus audience -- which is, trope description aside, generally quite carefully selected by professional marketers -- hates the ending (or another part of the film, but it's most often the ending for whatever reason), it's a good bet your target audience will hate it too. By extension, the audience you thought you could count on for tickets, especially repeat viewings and VHS/DVD purchases, will end up loathing the film and you'll lose even more than it would have cost to fix.
  • Sometimes, the necessary changes can be made with simple editing tricks or the use of Deleted Scenes.