When Home Alone debuted, it was an instant Christmas classic. I remember seeing it in the theater. In fact, my family and I went and saw it twice. The physical comedy, the friggin’ fragging’ why I aughta’ dialogue as the burglars live through beat down after beat down were hilarious. The soundtrack, the after shave scream, and the charm of its child star, all make this film highly re-watchable. It’s right up there alongside Elf, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. But how much do you know about the making of Home Alone? Today, we’re going to share what all real fanboys know about Home Alone.
It was made for Macaulay Culkin. The director, Chris Columbus, wrote the part of Kevin specifically for Macaulay Culkin. Although Chris Columbus auditioned about a hundred other kid actors it was all for naught. Culkin nailed it and the rest is history.
A World Record holder. According to Mentalfloss.com, “In its opening weekend, Home Alone topped the box office, making $17,081,997 in 1202 theaters. The movie maintained its number one spot for a full 12 weeks and remained in the top 10 until June of the following year. It became the highest grossing film of 1990 and earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever domestically. It held on to that title for quite some time—27 years, to be exact—until the Chinese blockbuster Never Say Die knocked it out of the top spot in 2017.”
Robert De Niro turned down the role as Harry. Joe Pesci’s iconic role as Harry Lime was first offered to De Niro, who turned it down. The part was also offered to Jon Lovitz before Pesci agreed.
What the fridge. Joe Pesci famously starred in not so family friendly movies. As a result, he often let loose as many four letter words as he wanted to. But for Home Alone he had trouble curbing this tendency. Chris Columbus suggested he replace one word in particular with “fridge.”
Candy ornaments. The scene where Daniel Stern enters the home through a conveniently open window and then steps on a bunch of glass ornaments looks particularly painful. But, the ornaments actually were candy. Still, Stern wasn’t taking any chances and wore rubber feet for his barefoot scenes.
Silent screams. In the scene where Kevin puts a tarantula on Sterns face…that was a very real spider. But, in order to not scare the arachnid, Stern had to fake a scream. They later dubbed over a real scream in post production.
The neighbor was an afterthought. Old Man Marley, Kevins scary neighbor wasn’t originally in the script. It was added by Chris Columbus during filming because Columbus thought the film could use an extra does of sentimentality.
How’s that for some trivia-night tidbits on one of the most successful Christmas comedies of all time? Home Alone also spawned Home Alone 2, which did well at the box office. The films led to a full on franchise spawning four sequels, three video games, two board games, a novelization and even a talkboy recorder that was featured in the second film. But, nothing really captures the magic of that first film. So here’s to Home Alone and keeping the tradition of Christmas movies alive.