Home Alone 3 is a 1997 Americancrime comedy film directed byRaja Gosnell in hisdirectorial debut, and written and produced byJohn Hughes. It is the third film in theHome Alone franchise, and the first not to feature the primary cast, directorChris Columbus, nor composerJohn Williams from previous installments. StarringAlex D. Linz andHaviland Morris, the story follows Alex Pruitt, an 8-year-old boy who defends his home from a dangerous group of international criminals working for a North Korean terrorist organization.

Home Alone 3
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raja Gosnell
Written by	John Hughes
Produced by	John Hughes Hilton Green
Starring	Alex D. Linz Haviland Morris
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Bruce Green Malcolm Campbell David Rennie
Music by	Nick Glennie-Smith
Production companies	Fox Family Films[1] Hughes Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 12, 1997 (1997-12-12)
Running time	102 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$32 million[2]
Box office	$79.1 million[2]

Home Alone 3 was released on December 12, 1997, by20th Century Fox. The film was a box-office success, but received negative reviews from critics, who compared it unfavorably to the previous entries in the series. It was followed by amade-for-television standalone sequel,Home Alone 4, in 2002, which features no returning cast or crew members; it features characters from the first two films, albeit portrayed by different actors.

Peter Beaupre, Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger are four internationally wanted criminals working for aHong Kong–based terrorist organization linked to North Korea. In Silicon Valley, California, they steal a $10 million missile-cloakingmicrochip and hide it inside a radio-controlled car to get the chip past security atSan Francisco International Airport. However, a passenger named Mrs. Hess inadvertently takes the criminals' bag containing the car, mistaking it for her identical bag. The criminals arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip.

Eight-year-old Alex Pruitt is given the toy car by Hess as payment for shoveling her driveway. He returns home and discovers that he haschicken pox and must stay home from school. The next day, Alex discovers the criminals while spying on his neighbors and calls the police, but they are unable to help. Alex attaches a camera to the car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the criminals chasing it when they see it. Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He calls the local U.S. Air Force Recruitment Center about the discovery and asks if they can forward the information about the chip to the authorities.

The criminals realize that Alex has been watching them and decide to break into the Pruitt house. Alex rigs the house with handmadebooby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother Stan's parrot. The criminals break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. While the group pursue Alex around the house, he flees and rescues Hess, who has been taped to a chair in her garage by Alice. Beaupre ambushes Alex, but the latter uses a bubble gun resembling aGlock to scare him off.

FBI agents and the police later arrive and arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger, having received a tip from the recruitment center. However, Beaupre hides in a makeshiftsnow fort in the backyard. Stan's parrot discovers him and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker in exchange for silence, but the parrot demands two. Since Beaupre has only one, the parrot lights the fireworks, alerting the authorities to Beaupre's location.

That evening, the Pruitts, Mrs. Hess, and the authorities hold a celebration for Alex as the Pruitt house is being repaired, with Alex's father Jack returning home from a business trip. At the police department, the criminals are shown to have contracted Alex's chicken pox during their mugshots.

Home Alone 3 waspitched at the same time asHome Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and both films were meant to be produced simultaneously; however, those plans fell through.^[3] The idea for a thirdHome Alone movie was revived in the mid-1990s; early drafts called forMacaulay Culkin to reprise the role of Kevin McCallister as a teenager. However, by 1994, Culkin had taken a hiatus from acting. As a result, the idea was reworked, centering on a new cast of characters.^[3]

It was filmed inChicago andEvanston, Illinois, with the airport scenes at the beginning of the film being shot at two differentconcourses atO'Hare International Airport.^{[citation needed]}

Principal photography began on December 2, 1996, and filming concluded on March 22, 1997.^{[citation needed]}

Fox Family Films was the division of20th Century Fox responsible for the production on the film.^[1]

Home Alone 3 was released theatrically on December 12, 1997, by 20th Century Fox. The film later released onVHS andLaserdisc on June 2, 1998, and onDVD on November 3, 1998, which was later reissued in December 2007 (and, as part ofHome Alone multi-packs, in 2006 and 2008).^[4] While the DVD presents the film in its original Widescreen format (1.85:1), it is presented in a non-anamorphic 4:3 matte.^{[citation needed]}

The film grossed $79,082,515 worldwide, against an estimated budget of $32 million.^[2]

On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 35% of 26 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Macaulay Culkin's precocious charisma is sorely missed in this hollow sequel, which doubles down on the broad comedy while lacking all the hallmarks that made the original a classic."^[5] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.^[6]

Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and said that he found it to be "fresh, very funny, and better than the first two."^[7]

Home Alone 3 was nominated for aRazzie forWorst Remake or Sequel at the18th Golden Raspberry Awards, losing toSpeed 2: Cruise Control.^[8]

Anovelization based on the screenplay was written by Todd Strasser and published byScholastic in 1997 to coincide with the film.^[9]

• Home Alone 3 atIMDb
• Home Alone 3 atBox Office Mojo
• Home Alone 3 atRotten Tomatoes
• Home Alone 3 at theTCM Movie Database