Rather than discard the wonderfully o.t.t. and spectacular originally-intended ending and insert the more-sane "happy" reshot one, if they'd have just come up with a way (ending) in which Seymour & Audrey survive but Audrey 2 and her spawn still go on to wreak their havoc...it might have worked out better all round!??
shareBecause those two ideas are tonally incompatible.
shareWell... now, it's possible Audrey II could have had her offspring leave them alone as they ate the REST of the world. But then that WAS the point. Each time the plant ate a whole person it got stronger. It ate Mushnik, Audrey, and Seymour fairly close together... so it gained somewhat 'super strength' in a way to be able to get out of the store. In the meantime it's offspring being sold all over the place were growing from other people's deaths too. But you would think, even back in that day... logic would dictate once the ones that clipped the leaves from Audrey II found out HOW it grew, would NOT have put it on the market. Because why put something on the market with no research how to maintain it. Those people would have found out before putting buds out for sale on the market when they find out water is not needed to keeping it from wilting.
3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!
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They could have had Seymour saving Audrey and facing up to Audrey-2-the-plant only for the shop to collapse (ala the original cinema release), but after then cutting to Seymour waking up in the hospital weeks later with a concerned Audrey alongside and asking her did everything work out ok...
...only for her to gesture towards the window with the camera then panning out towards the turmoil outside caused by the plant(s) taking over.
Hence we have both endings used, but with our heroes surviving and the intended spectacular ending included!
Look at Godzilla: King of the Monsters for an idea on how the rampage ending could've been used. That movie puts its true ending on the screen during the credits, where it reveals the actual consequences on the world of the final battle. It advances a lot of ideas and story in the final scenes under the credits.
That's all you would've had to do with the original Audrey II rampage. Leave the dialogue in where the businessman says he will sell the Audrey IIs without Seymour's consent. Then after the close-up of the little Audrey II in the garden, morph to the businessman holding a little Audrey II and announcing the release of the product. Then let the original ending continue under the credits. The whole thing then turns into a joke with Audrey II getting the last laugh. But the audience wouldn't mind that. They don't hate Audrey II. They just love Seymour and Audrey and didn't want to see them die. Plus the line "if we fight it, we've still got a chance" implies that there may be hope to finally defeat Audrey II. The audience wouldn't have minded seeing Seymour and Audrey continue the fight against Audrey II.