Have you ever watched a movie, and you didn't like the ending? Well, you wouldn't be alone, and I imagine this has happened to all of us at one time or another, sometimes because we've been tricked and the ending is an ironic twist, other times it's a sad ending, it's not what you expected, and you are not pleased.
As movie producers and screenplay writers we need to make sure that we know what our audience is thinking, and although it's nice to surprise them at an end of the movie, it's also important to keep them happy.
After all, if you want to have a box office smash you need the referrals from everyone that walks out of the theater, telling friends that it was a great movie, and recommending that they see it.
Not to mention the fact that in this day and age of social networking, that many of the comments about movies and the reviews end up going viral across the Internet.
The best way to get free press, and positive movie reviews is to have an adequate ending.
There is another strategy, and I'd like to discuss that for a moment if I would.
That is the strategy of having multiple endings.
This most often only happens with screenplay writers, novelists, and other creative geniuses who have two or three really great endings, and they can't pick one.
Meanwhile as a movie producer you know that different endings appeal to different types of people and cultures.
In the United States due to our moral and ethical nature, we like movie endings which have justice, where the good guys win.
But not all cultures appreciate that, as that isn't the reality they live in or what they know.
In fact to them art, comedy, and storytelling often depicts the reality that cannot be said due to issues of freedom of speech.
And then there is another issue; you might have a very good ending to a movie that you play in the United States, but it might be offensive to the Chinese government.
The US citizens might like a certain ending, but the film will be banned in China if you use it there.
In the future we will see more and more films with multiple endings for different cultures because globally the movie industry has expanded, and there is money to be made internationally, even more so than could ever have been hoped for through United States-based consumers and moviegoers.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and give it some serious thought.