That's actually the original ending to the play (Don't Feed The Plants).

It's not hard to see why the original ending tested so poorly - the bad guy (plant?) wins. That simply doesn't play in a comedy. Honestly, I don't like the original either, though I appreciate it now for what it is. If I had seen it for the first time way back when I was a kid, I probably would have flat-out hated the movie and never seen it again. As it is, it's one of my all time faves.

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Really the changed ending is a testament to why test screening shouldn't be weighted too heavily in the final film.

Why? With the new ending, the movie became a hit and everyone loved it. Releasing the old ending would have been a disaster. Even the director agrees, and really sort of nails how it's different from a play.

Interview with Frank Oz.

Frank Oz wrote:

David Geffen was very supportive of how Howard Ashman and I wanted to do the original ending. David said, "You can't do that, you can't kill your leads," but he supported us. Two years later, we killed our leads and the audience hated us for it. They loved those leads, because in a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow—in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead. And the audience loved those people, and they hated us for it. It got very, very, very exceedingly low scores as a result, so we had no choice but to re-shoot it. And I believed it was the right thing to do. I was unhappy that Howard and I couldn't solve how to use a million dollars worth of great B-movie shots and footage, but we had no choice.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Just because people like something doesn't mean they're right to like it.

It doesn't mean they're wrong to like it either.

And let's face facts, this isn't a dramatic powerhouse. submitted for Best Picture. It's a lighthearted musical comedy. Yes, it's a dark comedy underneath it all with morals and the like, but these movies aren't made for artistic merit, they're made so the people watching it will have a good time.

And also, remember it's not that that people like the new ending. It's that they hated the old one. When people come away loving 95% of your film, but the ending pissed them off enough to make them hate it, you did something very wrong.

Syd Lexia wrote:

UsaSatsui wrote: When people come away loving 95% of your film, but the ending pissed them off enough to make them hate it, you did something very wrong. Brazil Blade Runner Army of Darkness Pretty In Pink I Am Legend Fatal Attraction

I can list movies too. Unless that's a list of musical comedies that did terribly in test screenings because of a downer ending, had the test audiences ignored, and still went on to be successful, I don't see the relevance.