With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we are getting into holiday mode. One of the most popular films to watch on Thanksgiving Day is Home Alone. Although some might technically classify this as a Christmas movie, it’s often aired on Thanksgiving.
Home Alone is a series of American Christmas family comedy films originally created by John Hughes. Chris Columbus directed Home Alone and the sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The story follows Kevin in his adventures after being forgotten for a holiday trip. The film stars Macaulay Caulkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern.
Pesci and Stern are burglars who tried to invade Kevin’s family home. While filming, both of the burglars suffered actual injuries, such as burns and a broken nose. The burglars who were trying to get Kevin had bird seeds glued to them and were attacked by real pigeons.
The house used for the film is widely recognizable, but they actually did not film in it, it was too small for the crew and all the cameras so they went to a gymnasium in a high school and they thought the space was perfect so they built a look alike of the house inside of the gymnasium.
With the first film being so popular and successful, the sequel followed Kevin in New York. The movie, Home Alone: Lost in New York had all but one actress, who played Kevin’s sister Linnie, returned for their roles in the second movie.
Some interesting tidbits from the sequel: Donald Trump owned the Plaza Hotel at the time of filming, hence the cameo he did in the movie. The toy store featured in the movie it’s not a real toy store. Production paid to have a ton of snow made, then there was a huge NYC storm that brought a bunch of snow to the set. The pigeon lady is actually an Oscar winner for another role she did.
Macaulay Culkin only made $110k for his role in the first film. The original Home Alone cost $18 million to make but it grossed over $285.7 million in North America. The highest for a comedy in that territory. Worldwide it made $500 million. The sequel grossed over $173.5 million. Kevin was supposed to be in Home Alone 3 as a teen but by the time of filming Macaulay Culkin had already retired from acting so the film went another direction. There are 4 other home alone movies with different actors.