Hughes conceivedHome Alone while on vacation, withWarner Bros. being originally intended to finance and distribute the film. However, Warner Bros. shut down the production after it exceeded its assigned budget.20th Century Fox assumed responsibilities following meetings with Hughes. Columbus and Culkin were hired soon afterwards. Filming took place between February and May 1990 on location acrossIllinois.
Home Alone had asneak preview across 1,000 theaters on November 10, 1990, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 16. While the film's reception was initially mixed, in later years reception has been generally positive, with praise for its cast, humor, and music.Home Alone grossed $476.7 million worldwide, becoming thesecond-highest-grossing film of 1990. It made Culkin a child star, and was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades. It was nominated for twoAcademy Awards and twoGolden Globe Awards.Home Alone has since been considered one of thebest Christmas films. In 2023,Home Alone was selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry by theLibrary of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A sequel,Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, was released in 1992.
Plot
The McCallister family prepares to spendChristmas in Paris, gathering at Kate and Peter's home in a Chicagosuburb on the night before their departure. Kate and Peter's youngest son Kevin is ridiculed by his siblings and cousins due to his immaturity. Kevin inadvertently ruins the family dinner after a scuffle with his oldest brother Buzz, resulting in Kate sending him up to the attic. Frustrated with Kate for allowing the rest of the family to pick on him, Kevin wishes that his family would disappear. During the night, heavy winds create a power outage, disabling the alarm clocks and causing the family to oversleep. In the confusion and rush to get to the airport, Kevin is accidentally left behind.
Kevin wakes to find the house empty and the family cars still in the garage, unaware that they had rented vans to take them to the airport. Thinking that his wish has come true, he is overjoyed with his newfound freedom. Later, Kevin becomes frightened by his eccentric next-door neighbor, "Old Man" Marley, rumored to be a serial killer nicknamed the "South-Bend Shovel Slayer" who murdered his own family. The McCallister home is soon stalked by the "Wet Bandits", Harry and Marv, a pair of burglars who have been breaking into other vacant houses in the neighborhood. Kevin tricks them into thinking that his family is still home, forcing them to postpone their plans to rob the McCallister house.
Kate realizes mid-flight that Kevin was left behind, and upon arrival in Paris, the family discovers that all flights for the next two days are booked, and that the phone lines are still down back home in Chicago. Peter and the rest of the family stay at his brother Rob's apartment in Paris while Kate stays at the airport. Unable to book a flight to Chicago, Kate convinces a couple to trade tickets with her. When she eventually arrives in the US, she meets Gus Polinski, the lead member of a travelingpolka band, who offers to let her travel with them to Chicago in amoving van on the way toMilwaukee.
OnChristmas Eve, Harry and Marv finally realize that only Kevin is in the McCallister home, and Kevin overhears them discussing plans to break into the house that night. He starts to miss his family and asks the localSanta Claus impersonator if he could bring them back for Christmas. Kevin attends a church choir performance, eventually re-encountering Marley, who proves the rumors about himself to be false. Marley points out his granddaughter in the choir and mentions he has never met her since she is the daughter of his estranged son. Kevin suggests he try to reconcile with his son.
Kevin returns home and rigs the house with handmadebooby traps. Harry and Marv break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. Kevin calls the police and lures the duo into a vacant neighboring house that they had previously broken into. Harry and Marv ambush Kevin and prepare to get their revenge, but Marley intervenes and knocks them out with his snow shovel. The police arrive and arrest Harry and Marv, having identified all the houses that they broke into due to Marv's habit of flooding them.
On Christmas Day, Kevin is initially disappointed to find that his family is still gone. However, Kate arrives home and they reconcile. The rest of the family then returns after waiting in Paris for a direct flight to Chicago. Kevin keeps silent about his encounter with Harry and Marv, although Peter finds Harry's knocked-out gold tooth. Kevin then happily watches Marley reuniting with his family.
Cast
Macaulay Culkin as Kevin, an eight-year-old with a penchant for creating harmful inventions
Joe Pesci as Harry, a thief who targets the McCallisters' home with Marv
Daniel Stern as Marv, a thief who targets the McCallisters' home with Harry
Writer and producerJohn Hughes conceivedHome Alone while preparing to go on vacation. He said: "I was going away on vacation, and making a list of everything I didn't want to forget. I thought, 'Well, I'd better not forget my kids.' Then I thought, 'What if I left my 10-year-old son at home? What would he do?'"[5] Hughes wrote eight pages of notes that developed into the screenplay.[5] Imagining that children are naturally most scared of robbers, Hughes also worked that aspect into the plot of the film.[5]
Home Alone was initially set to be financed and distributed byWarner Bros. Hughes promised that he could make the movie for less than $10 million, considerably less than most feature film production budgets of that era. Concerned that the film might exceed that amount, Hughes met secretly with20th Century Fox before production to see if they would fund the project if Warner Bros. proved inflexible. According to executive producer Scott Rosenfelt, a copy of the script was "clandestinely" delivered to Fox, bypassing the legal restrictions that would have otherwise prevented Fox from seeing it until the project was inturnaround.[6] Early in production, the budget grew to $14.7 million. Warner Bros. demanded that it be cut by $1.2 million; the producers responded with a memo arguing that the budget could not be cut any further. Unconvinced, Warner Bros. shut down production the next day, but it quickly resumed when Fox took up Hughes on his offer. The final budget grew to $18 million.[6]
Hughes had askedPatrick Read Johnson to direct, but he was committed to directingSpaced Invaders (1990).[7] He turned toChris Columbus, who had leftNational Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) before shooting started because of a personality clash with starring actorChevy Chase, who Columbus said treated him "like dirt".[8] Hughes gave him the scripts for bothHome Alone andReach the Rock (1998); Columbus chose to directHome Alone, as he found it funnier and liked the Christmas theme.[9][10] Columbus did an uncredited rewrite of the script; among his contributions was the character of Old Man Marley, which he created to give the story a more serious layer, as well as a more emotional, happier ending.[11]
Casting
Macaulay Culkin (pictured in 1991) was the child star of the film.
Hughes suggested to Columbus that they castMacaulay Culkin as Kevin, because of his experience while shootingUncle Buck (1989). Columbus met with 200 other actors for the part, as he felt it was his "directorial responsibility".[10][12]John Mulaney was asked to audition for the role of Kevin after being scouted in a children'ssketch comedy group, but his parents refused the opportunity.[13] Columbus finally met with Culkin and agreed he was the right choice.[10]
Daniel Stern was cast as Marv, but before shooting started, he was told that the production schedule had been extended from six weeks to eight. He dropped out after as he would not be paid more for the extended schedule.Daniel Roebuck was hired to replace him, but after two days of rehearsal, Columbus felt he was lacking chemistry with Pesci and brought back Stern.[6] Roebuck later said that, although he was upset to be fired from the production, he now believed the experience was "a little blip of unimportance".[17]Chris Farley auditioned for the role of the Santa Claus impersonator, but he failed to impress Columbus.[18]
John Candy was available for only one day to film his scenes, which took 23 hours to shoot. He was paid only $414, since he did the film as a favor to Hughes. In return, he was the only actor Hughes allowed to go off-script; according to Columbus, all his dialogue was improvised.[6]
Principal photography took place from February 14, 1990, to May 8, 1990, over a course of 83 days on an $18.3 million budget.[19][20][21] The house exterior scenes werefilmed on location at a three-story single-family house located at 671 Lincoln Avenue[22] in theNorth Shore village ofWinnetka, Illinois, where many of Hughes' previous films had also been shot,[23] but at different houses. The only interiors of the house used for filming that made it to the finished film were the main staircase, attic and most of the first floor landing,[24] while all the other interiors of the house were duplicated on asound stage to allow more room for equipment and crew. These sets were built in the then-disused gym ofNew Trier High School's west campus, previously used by Hughes forUncle Buck andFerris Bueller's Day Off, where the production company had already set up its offices.[6] 671 Lincoln Avenue later became a tourist attraction.[25] The tree house in the backyard was built specifically for the film and dismantled after filming ended.[14]
Kevin runs away from his third encounter with Marley in Hubbard Woods Park in Winnetka.[26] In addition, the scene where Kevin wades in his neighbor's flooded basement was shot at the empty swimming pool of the aforementioned campus of New Trier High School, with theAmerican AirlinesDC-10 first class cabin interiors done on the basketball courts. The church exteriors were shot at Trinity United Methodist Church inWilmette, Illinois, while the interiors were shot at Grace Episcopal Church inOak Park, Illinois.[27] Filming also took place over four sixteen-hour days atO'Hare International Airport, which served for both itself andOrly Airport inParis. John Candy filmed his cameo appearance for the film over the course of one day atMeigs Field.[19]
For thefilm within a film,Angels with Filthy Souls (the title of which parodies the 1938 crime filmAngels with Dirty Faces), shooting took only one day, on the final "test day" prior to the official start of principal photography. To create the illusion that the film was an authentic 1940sgangster film, the scene was filmed on black-and-white negative film, and Johnny's office featured props from that era. Like much of the film, most of the sequence was shot with low, wide angles that, according to journalist Darryn King, "capture the action as if a child were perceiving it".[28] Originally,Ralph Foody was to play Snakes and Michael Guido was to play Johnny, but since Foody had recently undergone knee replacement surgery, he was unable to do the death scene where Snakes drops to his knees, leading to the roles being switched.[29]
CinematographerJulio Macat recalled that Pesci was more difficult to work with than Culkin. The older actor believed some of the dialogue was not of a quality commensurate with his acting ability. He also resented the early unit calls, since they prevented him from starting his day with nine holes of golf as he preferred to do.[6] After he took theassistant director by the collar one day to complain about this, daily call times were moved back from 7 to 9 a.m. to accommodate his rounds.[30] On the other end of the schedule, the crew had limited time to film the many nighttime scenes, since Culkin could not work any later than 10 p.m. due to his age.[10]
Pesci said in a 2022 interview withPeople of working with Culkin, "I intentionally limited my interactions with him to preserve the dynamic" and made sure not "to come across on the screen that we were in any way friendly" in order to "maintain the integrity of the adversarial relationship".[31]
On the set, Pesci and Stern both had difficulty refraining from cursing, which became annoying to Pesci, since Culkin was on set as well. In fact, the only curse words that made it into the film were "shit", accidentally said by Daniel Stern when his shoe fell through thepet door, and "hell", which was said by both Pesci and Stern after their characters encounter one another after going through Kevin's booby traps and by Johnny to the character of Snakes inAngels with Filthy Souls.[32][12] Pesci's use of "cartoon cursing", or menacing gibberish, garnered comparisons toLooney Tunes characterYosemite Sam.[33]
The film's stunts also created tension for the crew during shooting. Columbus said, "Every time the stunt guys did one of those stunts it wasn't funny. We'd watch it, and I would just pray that the guys were alive."[10][34] Stunts were originally prepared with safety harnesses, but because of their visibility on camera, the film's final stunts were performed without them.[10] Troy Brown and Leon Delaney were stuntmen for Pesci and Stern, respectively.[35] An injury had occurred between Pesci and Culkin during one of the rehearsals for the scene in which Harry tries to bite off Kevin's finger; Culkin still has the scar.[12] Thetarantula that walks on Stern's face was real.[35]
Senta Moses, who played Tracy, recalled in 2020 that one of the most difficult scenes to shoot was the family's run through O'Hare International Airport to catch their flight. While it does not last long, it required several days to film. "There were thousands of extras, all expertly choreographed so none of us would be in danger running at full speed through the American Airlines terminal", she toldThe Hollywood Reporter. "And we ran atfull speed. Sometimes we'd bump into each other, like a multi-car pileup on the expressway, and just crack up laughing ... There were so many setups and narrowly missed moments of disaster, but to my knowledge, no one got hurt."[36]
Columbus initially hoped to haveBruce Broughton score the film, and early posters listed him as the composer. However, Broughton was busy withThe Rescuers Down Under (1990), and he had to cancel at the last minute.[10] Columbus was later able to get in touch withSteven Spielberg, who helped him contactJohn Williams to produce the final score.[10] Traditional Christmas songs, such as "O Holy Night" and "Carol of the Bells", are featured prominently in the film, as well as the film's theme song "Somewhere in My Memory". The soundtrack was released bySony Classical Records on cassette on December 4, 1990,[37] and on CD on May 27, 2015.[38]
Release
Theatrical
Home Alone had a sneak preview screening for about 1,000 theaters on November 10, 1990. The advanced screening proved successful, with 5% of the preview audience returning for its official release the following week. Originally scheduled to be released on Thanksgiving weekend, its opening date was brought forward to avoid direct competition withThree Men and a Little Lady.[39] It was given a wide release on November 16, 1990.[40]
Home media
Home Alone was first released byFox Video onVHS andLaserDisc in the United States on August 22, 1991,[41] their first video to go direct to sell-through rather than to the video rental market first.[42] It sold 11 million copies, generating Fox revenue of $150 million[43] making it, along withE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, thehighest-selling video of all time at that point.[42] Due to the sales, the film did not perform as well in the rental market.[42]
It was later released on DVD on October 5, 1999, as a basic package.[44] The film was released onBlu-ray on December 2, 2008, titledFamily Fun Edition,[45] and was released alongsideHome Alone 2: Lost in New York in a collection pack on October 5, 2010.[46] The film was reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray on October 6, 2015, alongside all four of its sequels in a box set titledHome Alone: 25th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Christmas Edition.[47]
Home Alone grossed $285.8 million in the United States and Canada and $190.9 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $476.7 million, against a production budget of $18 million.[3] In its opening weekend,Home Alone grossed $17 million from 1,202 theaters, averaging $14,211 per site and just 6% of the final total and added screens over the next six weeks, with a peak screen count of 2,174 during its eighth weekend at the start of January 1991.[49]
Home Alone was the number-one film at the box office for 12 consecutive weeks, from its release weekend of November 16–18, 1990, through the weekend of February 1–3, 1991.[50][49] It was removed from the top spot whenSleeping with the Enemy opened with $13 million.[49] It remained in the top ten until the weekend of April 26, well past Easter weekend. It made two more appearances in the top ten (the weekend of May 31 – June 2 and the weekend of June 14–16) before finally falling out of the top ten.[51] After over nine months into its run, the film had earned 16x its debut weekend and ended up making a final gross of $285,761,243, the top-grossing film of its year in North America.[52] The film is listed in theGuinness World Records as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever[53] and held the record until it was overtaken byThe Hangover Part II in 2011.[54]
Upon release,Home Alone received mixed reviews from critics.[58][59][60] Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,Home Alone holds an approval rating of 66% based on 116 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Home Alone's uneven but frequently funny premise stretched unreasonably thin is buoyed by Macaulay Culkin's cute performance and strong supporting stars."[61] OnMetacritic, the film has aweighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[62] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[63]
Variety magazine praised the film for its cast.[64] Jeanne Cooper ofThe Washington Post praised the film for its comedic approach.[65] Hal Hinson, also ofThe Washington Post, praised Columbus's direction and Culkin's performance.[66] Although Caryn James ofThe New York Times complained that the film's first half is "flat and unsurprising as its cute little premise suggests", she praised the second half for its slapstick humor. She also praised the dialogue between Kevin and Marley, as well as the film's final scenes.[67]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film a2+1⁄2 out of a 4-star rating. He compared the elaborate booby-traps in the film toRube Goldberg machines, writing "they're the kinds of traps that any 8-year-old could devise, if he had a budget of tens of thousands of dollars and the assistance of a crew of movie special effects people" and criticized the plot as "so implausible that it makes it hard for [him] to really care about the plight of the kid [Kevin]". However, he praised Culkin's performance.[68]
Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly magazine gave the film a "D" grade, criticizing the film for its "sadistic festival of adult-bashing". Gleiberman said that John Hughes "is pulling our strings as though he'd never learn to do anything else".[69]Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian gave the film three out of five and praised Culkin's "vivid screen presence, almost incandescent with confidence". However, he criticized his acting, calling it "a bit broad and mannered".[57] Ali Barclay of theBBC wrote, "Culkin walks a fine line between annoyance and endearment throughout the film." He also calledHome Alone "a film which manages to capture some of the best qualities of Christmas".[70]
Naomi Barnwell ofRoobla said that "Home Alone has all the ingredients that make for a great kids' film".[71] Adrian Turner of Radio Times called the movie "a celebration of enterprise that captured the heart and wickedness of every child on the planet."[72] According toTV Guide, "[Home Alone]'s slapstick falls flat and only the pain remains."[73] Peter Rainer of theLos Angeles Times criticized the gags, writing they leave "a sour aftertaste". He added "this film plays better as a trailer than as a full-length film" when a trailer lets viewers appreciate those "without having to fight off a lot of unsettling associations".[74]
Home Alone gradually became a Christmas classic.[75][76][77][60] It was praised for its quotable phrases,[78] traps,[79] and main character.[80] Hannah-Rose Yee ofStylist called the ending "very sweet" and praised the score from John Williams, calling it "fantastic".[81] Christopher Hooton ofThe Independent also praised the film, calling the film-within-a-filmAngels with Filthy Souls "a fond footnote in cinema history".[82] Matt Talbot fromSimcoe.com said that the Wet Bandits were "fantastic" and "never [got] old" on "repeat viewings".[83] Michael Walsh ofNerdist noted the church scene as "One of the best, most touching scenes [in the film]".[84]
Home Alone remains a highly popular Christmas movie inPoland, when it is played onPolsat every Christmas Eve. In 2010, Polsat did not playHome Alone, which caused over 90,000 people to protest on Facebook.[85] In 2016, over 4.44 million Poles tuned in to Polsat to watchHome Alone. Since the 2010s, its TV trailers even include a tagline that acknowledges this popularity:"Christmas without him? It's absolutely impossible!".[86] The movie is also highly popular inRomania, being played byPro TV since 1995, except 2021 when the movie was played byAntena 1. In 2014, over 2.7 million Romanians watched the movie on Pro TV.[citation needed]
Julio Macat, the film's cinematographer, considersHome Alone his favorite film out of all the projects he has shot. It was the favorite film of former U.S. PresidentGerald Ford.[87]
The 1989 French horrorthriller film3615 code Père Noël, which is about a young boy who is home alone with his elderly grandfather and has to fend off a home invader dressed up asSanta Claus, has been noted for its plot similarities toHome Alone.[100]3615 code Père Noël director René Manzor threatened the producers ofHome Alone with legal action on the grounds ofplagiarism, alleging thatHome Alone was a remake of his film.[101][102]3615 code Père Noël was not released in the United States during its original theatrical run in January 1990 and did not become widely available there until 2018.[103][104]
Use in media
The music video forSnoop Dogg's 1994 song "Gin and Juice" opens with a gag where, after a teenaged Snoop's parents have left him to watch the house in their absence, he places his hands to his face and yells in the manner of Kevin McCallister in the first film, while a title comes on screen reading "Home Boy Alone".[105] In December 2015, Culkin reprised his role as an adult Kevin McCallister in the inaugural episode of theJack Dishel web seriesDRYVRS in which a visibly disturbed McCallister recounts his experiences from the events of the first film and subsequently uses his signature tactics against a gunman.[106] In response, Daniel Stern posted a short video reprising his role as Marv, released in conjunction with Stern'sReddit AMA, pleading for support from Harry against McCallister's traps.[107]
The 2016 Christmas-set horror filmBetter Watch Out includes a scene where a character who is obsessed with theHome Alone films demonstrates how, in real life, it would be deadly for someone to be hit in the face with a paint can swung from a distance.[108] Theseason 13 episode ofIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia "Charlie's Home Alone" is intended to be a direct parody of the firstHome Alone film. In the episode,Charlie Kelly is accidentally forgotten while the rest of "the gang" attendSuper Bowl LII. Charlie mistakenly believes he must protect the bar by setting up traps, only for himself to accidentally activate said traps, nearly preventing from performing his Super Bowl "rituals".[109]
On December 15, 2018, Culkin made a guest appearance as himself in an episode ofAngry Video Game Nerd to review multiple video game adaptations of the first twoHome Alone films, as well as a gameplay session ofThe Pagemaster withJames Rolfe and Mike Matei in the days following that episode's release.[110] On December 19, 2018, Culkin again reprised his role as McCallister in a 60-second advertisement forGoogle Assistant titledHome Alone Again, which parodies the original film. The commercial containsshot-for-shot remakes of several scenes from the film in which McCallister uses several of the product's functions. The concluding scene involves a command sequence intended to make the house look active, parodying the original "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" scene.[111]
Home Alone is prominently referenced in the 2022 action comedy filmViolent Night, in which Trudy Lightston, a fan of the film, imitates Kevin's fighting tactics against burglars who take her family hostage.[112]
Use in Poland
Films such asHome Alone andDie Hard (1988) are very popular at Christmas time in Poland, because they were some of the first Western movies to be released in Poland since the end ofcommunist rule.[113][114][115] However, the Polish premiere ofHome Alone took place not during the Christmas season but on May 22, 1992.[116] Three years later, on Christmas Day 1995, at 20:10 CET onTVP1, the Polish television premiere of the film took place. Then three times on December 26, 1997, and December 24 and 25, 1999, the film was broadcast on televisionTVN.[117]In December 2000, 8.9 million Poles were watchingHome Alone onChristmas Eve;[118] by 2017, about four million people (11.6% of Poland's population) were watching it on Christmas Eve and in 2018 again on the same day the film recorded the highest viewership, with 4.51 million viewers.[119]
The film was followed by a commercially successful sequel in 1992,Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, which brought back most of the first film's cast. Culkin was paid $4.5 million to appear in the sequel, compared to $110,000 for the original.[123] The film within a film,Angels with Filthy Souls, had a sequel inHome Alone 2,Angels with Even Filthier Souls. BothAngels meta-films featured character actorRalph Foody as stereotypical 1930s mobster Johnny.[124] A third film,Home Alone 3, was released in 1997; it has entirely different actors and characters as well as a different storyline, with Hughes writing the screenplay.[125]
Atelevision film followed in 2002:Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House. The movie features some of the same characters who were in the first two films, but with a new cast and a storyline.[126] The fifth film,The Holiday Heist, premiered duringABC Family's Countdown to25 Days of Christmas programming event on November 25, 2012.[127] Similarly to the third film, it does not focus on the McCallister family.[128] Chris Columbus later revealed that there had been discussions on a sequel starring Kevin's son: "This was talked about maybe 10 years ago – I don't know, we were just having fun with it – and we said, 'What if Kevin is an adult and he has a kid?' But it was still Pesci and Stern – Pesci and Stern are still obsessed with this kid. They're going to get this kid."[129] Another idea that was once discussed involved an adult Kevin attempting revenge on Harry and Marv, who have reformed in the years since they last met. The studio declined to make the film despite Columbus & Culkin's interest in the idea.[130]
A sixth film was released digitally onDisney+ on November 12, 2021, titledHome Sweet Home Alone.[131]Devin Ratray, who played Buzz McCallister in the first two films, reprised his role in the film.[131]
^Honeycutt, Kirk (March 25, 2015).John Hughes: A Life in Film. Paragraph 8: RacePoint Publishing. p. 160.ISBN978-1631060229.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
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