How did the McCallisters afford that house in Home Alone ? Yes, it is that time of year again when the same question that has been asked for over three decades comes around. This year, it is Home Alone director Chris Columbus who has weighed in on whether Peter McCallister was running a drugs racket or Kate McCallister was working as a people trafficker - just two of the wild rumors that have been suggested over the years.
For decades, audiences have wondered where the money to run the incredibly elaborate home - and jet everyone off on holiday every year - comes from in the McCallister household. While real-life financial advisors and analysts have had their say in past years, now the director of the first two films - arguably the only two movies, really - has shared the truth behind the jobs that kept the McCallisters in their luxurious mansion house. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus explained:
"Back then, John [Hughes] and I had a conversation about it, and we decided on what the jobs were. [Catherine O'Hara's Kate McCallister] was a very successful fashion designer. The father (John Heard's Peter McCallister) could have, based on John Hughes own experience, worked in advertising, but I don't remember what the father did. Not organized crime -- even though there was, at the time, a lot of organized crime in Chicago."
So it seems that not even the movie's director is able to completely answer the question with full certainty, meaning that this is a debate that can, and will, continue on for time to come.
'Home Alone' Continues to be a Holiday Staple Close
This year, Home Alone topped the Disney+ movie chart as Christmas approached, while Home Alone 2: Lost in New York charted in second place. Despite all of the subsequent sequels, including the most recent - and terrible - Home Sweet Home Alone, all being available on the platform, none of them even touched the Top 10.
There is something special about the original movie, particularly with it being released in 1990 as a hit family movie that has now become a tradition for the kids of that era who have grown up and have their own children to watch the movie with. Even though the movie is full of comical violence, much of it is very brutal and not without potentially lethal consequences if it were to happen in real life. From blow torches to the head, to nails through the feet, the ingenious methods Macauley Culkin's Kevin McCallister uses to defend his home against the Wet Bandits (the impeccable Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) have often ranked higher than some R-rated movies in various film polls.
Related This Home Alone fan theory is the wildest one I've ever heard - but I'd like to think it's true. Do you agree?
The mere fact that you have a better chance of surviving the traps in Saw than you do from eight-year-old Kevin McCallister's homemade hidden dangers really says something about the evolution of the character. This fan theory has been on the internet since time began, so some of you may have heard of it already, but I just needed to bring it out to the masses once more. Do you believe that this outlandish arc holds any real possibility, or should it be thrown out just like the burglars in every Home Alone movie? Let me know in the comments!
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While more and more people are calling for Culkin to return to the franchise in his own legacy sequel, which some have pitched with an older Kevin McCallister defending his home once again, this time with his young family. While there are currently no plans for such a sequel happening, the franchise is in the hands of Disney, and if there is a moneyspinner to be made from the continuation of Kevin's battle to protect his home, then it would not be out of the question to see it happen somewhere down the line.
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Home Alone PG ComedyFamily Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US Release Date November 16, 1990 Director Chris Columbus Runtime 103 minutes Cast Macaulay Culkin , Joe Pesci , Daniel Stern , John Heard , Roberts Blossom , Catherine O'Hara