

Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the kiddie comedy, Home Alone. Two and a half decades later, it’s easy to forget just how big Home Alone was. The movie made nine-year-old Macaulay Culkin a household name and became the highest-grossing live action comedy of all times! So let’s go back and uncover the totally awesome facts you need to know about Home Alone.







Home Alone came from the mind of the brilliant screen-writer John Hughes. Hughes was at a crossroads in his career. In the eighties, he had built an industry out of making coming of age movies starring a group of young actors who were collectively known as The Brat Pack. But as the decade ended, there was a backlash against these actors and what was known as the “John Hughes movie”. So Hughes needed to reinvent himself or suffer the same fate as his young stars.

Hughes was a frequent traveler. It’s no coincidence that he wrote movies like National Lampoon’s Vacation and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. According to his son, James Hughes, his father came up with the idea for Home Alone as the family was preparing for their first trip to Europe. The idea of what would happen if they had left one of their children behind stayed with Hughes. Two weeks after returning from vacation, Hughes started working on a script.

Hughes was a notoriously fast writer. He cranked out the first draft of Home Alone in nine days. In the margins, he wrote notes worrying that he was working too slowly. Some of the scripts for Hughes’ most famous movies were written over the course of a weekend.

Director Chris Columbus came on board after turning down the chance to direct the Hughes-written sequel, Christmas Vacation. Columbus was actually hard up for work and was initially excited about the chance to direct a Christmas comedy. But after meeting with star, Chevy Chase, Columbus said he just couldn’t go through with it:

To be completely honest, Chevy treated me like dirt. But I stuck it out and even went as far as to shoot second unit. Some of my shots of downtown Chicago are still in the movie. Then I had another meeting with Chevy, and it was worse. I called John and said, ‘There’s no way I can do this movie. I know I need to work, but I can’t do it with this guy.’ John was very understanding. About two weeks later, I got two scripts at my in-laws’ house in River Forest. One was Home Alone, with a note from John asking if I wanted to direct. I thought, Wow, this guy is really supporting me when no one else in Hollywood was going to. John was my savior.



Home Alone was initially set up at Warner Brothers. But after a dispute over the budget, the movie was put into turnaround. Production was scheduled to start in three weeks, but whether or not that would happen was unclear. Producer Mark Radcliffe asked Hughes if they should lay everyone off. Hughes said to hold tight. He took the idea to Fox chairman, Joe Roth:

He told me Home Alone was costing $14.7 million and Warners would only pay $14 million. I said, ‘What’s the idea?’ He told me. I said, ‘OK, if you can get it out of there, I’ll make it.’ Seemed like a no-brainer. Didn’t cost much. I didn’t have a Thanksgiving movie. I liked the idea. I loved the people involved.

Hughes had directed Macaulay Culkin previously in the John Candy comedy, Uncle Buck. Columbus speculates that Hughes had Culkin in mind for the lead all along. But Hughes allowed Columbus to test other kids to see if he liked anyone else.

I ended up seeing 200 other kids, looked over hundreds of videotapes. Then Macaulay read, and you immediately knew this was the kid. I knew subconsciously that John knew that was going to happen, but it was really sweet of him to give me that sort of freedom.



Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci were cast as the bumbling Wet Bandits. You might think that this kind of slapstick would be beneath talented character actors like Stern and Pesci. But according to Stern, he wanted the part so badly that he asked to audition a second time.

I wanted it so bad. When I left, I thought, I could do that better. It was the only time in my life I called and said, ‘Can I come back?’ Chris told me later he was already gonna cast me, but he saw me audition again.

Home Alone was the first time Stern and Pesci appeared together onscreen. But it was not their first meeting. They had both filmed scenes that were cut from the 1982 TV movie, I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can. Stern said they bonded when Pesci cracked him up by pretending to snort ping pong balls in between takes.

The cast included several kids besides the lead. Several were local kids from Chicago while other kids like Macaulay’s younger brother Kieran, were from New York and LA. Costar Catherine O’Hara wasn’t used to the strict rules regarding shooting movies with child actors:

We’d shoot a scene with one of the kids; then, as late as one in the morning, we’d shoot my close-ups. They’d have a tennis ball on a stand, the height of the kid’s head, and the script supervisor would read the children’s lines.



A lot of the smaller parts were cast locally. The Second City comedy troupe was located in Chicago and provided a wealth of talent. The actor who played Santa Clause, Ken Hudson Campbell, was from Second City and he had to beat out a future Saturday Night Live star for the part:

Chris Farley was already there; he was auditioning, too. It was 9 a.m. Apparently, he was out all night and had just been dropped off after a night of shenanigans, shall we say. Farley was kinda making catcalls to the girls who worked in the office. I was thinking, Oh, boy! Chris went first. It didn’t go very well. He walked in and walked right out. I felt I went in and hit what I wanted to hit. A few weeks later, I got the call.

In the movie, Culkin’s character is obsessed with an old film noir called Angels with Filthy Souls. At one point, he replays a violent scene from the movie to scare off the criminals who are invading his home. But don’t look for Angels with Filthy Souls on Netflix. It wasn’t a real movie.



John Candy came in and filmed a cameo as a favor to Hughes. According to Columbus, “Candy came in for 24 hours. It was amazing that he had that kind of energy and enthusiasm on a movie that he probably did for scale, if he got paid anything. He did it as a favor to John. I was a little nervous and intimidated to meet him, because of the Chevy Chase experience.”

Columbus tried to make the most of his time with the famous comedian. But ultimately, they ran out of time. There was supposed to be a shot of Candy and O’Hara going their separate ways but they didn’t get around to filming it. According to O’Hara, the scene was heavily improvised:

I swear we worked for 21 hours straight, improvising. Candy would start a bit. John Hughes would start a bit, and Candy would pick up on it, and we would just go with it. It was all in the moment. We’d start a ridiculous conversation and go as far as we could. Chris told me later how we couldn’t use most of it. He laughed and said, ‘You’re supposed to be looking for your kid, and you’re just having a good time with these guys in a truck.’

As the movie was being worked on in post production, the studio began to sense they had a hit on their hands. Audiences at test screenings confirmed it. According to editor, Raja Gosnell, there was some concern about competing with Rocky V. But Home Alone ended up doing record-breaking box office. It held on to the #1 spot for 12 consecutive weeks. Daniel Stern remembered the recalled his reaction:

I’d been in the movies for over a decade, and I’d never been involved in a picture where anyone gave a shit about how much money it made. I’m shooting City Slickers when Home Alone comes out, and every day Billy Crystal would come walking in with a Hollywood Reporter and say, ‘Hey, your movie is No. 1.’ ‘Oh, cool,’ I’d say. Then every week he’d keep coming back in, like he was tracking the phenomenon. Billy is the one who kept saying, ‘What the fuck is going on with this movie? Twelve weeks?!’ I’d say, ‘Is that normal?’

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