Home Alone

Home Alone is a live-action family comedy starring Macaulay Culkin, Daniel Stern, Joe Pesci, and Catherine O'Hara. Written and produced by '80s iconoclast John Hughes, Home Alone was filmed in the same Chicago suburb as his previous films The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Sixteen Candles. As the McCallister family sets off on a Christmas trip to Paris, plans go awry when they realize mid-flight that they've left their youngest son Kevin (Culkin) at home. Back in Illinois, Kevin has his own set of problems to deal with: two pesky home burglars named Harry (Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern). Hilarity ensues as the pint-sized pipsqueak manages to outsmart two fully grown adult men just in time for Christmas.  

Home Alone was the highest-grossing live-action comedy film of its time, earning $476.7 million during the 1990 holiday season. It held the Guinness World Record for 21 years until The Hangover Part II (2011). It was also the most profitable Christmas movie of all time up until Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018). Home Alone was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards as well as two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song ("Somewhere In My Memory"). 

Hughes dreamt up the concept while he was creating a vacation packing list of his own, imagining what his then 10-year old would get up to if the family left him behind. The film cost roughly $14.5 million to make. It was directed by Chris Columbus, who went on to direct Mrs. Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter films, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Home Alone made Macaulay Culkin a household name, and he was reportedly paid $4.5 million for his appearance in the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

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