There is no need to introduce Home Alone. Directed by Chris Columbus, this 1990 family comedy became the most successful and popular Christmas-themed movie ever. It was the No. 1 movie at the box office for an incredible 12 straight weeks, from its first release weekend of November 16–18, 1990 through the weekend of February 1–3, 1991. Listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever, Home Alone is something that millions of people all over the world should not be without on Christmas. Most of us have seen this iconic film many times but I am sure there are things and facts about the comedy you didn’t know such as these 25 Home Alone movie facts.
25
The movie was so successful it even prompted the creation of a new Hollywood verb: "to be Home Aloned”, meaning to have film's box office potential affected by the impact of Home Alone.
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24
The tarantula scene was real. Daniel Stern (Marv) agreed to have the spider on his face. But in order to not frighten the spider, Stern had to mime the scream and have the sound dubbed in later.
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23
The Buzz’s girlfriend actually was not a girl at all, it was the art director’s son made up to look like a girl. Columbus thought using a real girl’s photo would be too cruel for an actual teenage girl.
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22
Kevin's tree house in the backyard was built specifically for the movie and was demolished after the filming.
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21
Joe Pesci (Harry) was constantly forgetting it was supposed to be a family comedy and kept dropping F-bombs during filming. Columbus told him to say “fridge” instead.
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20
Pesci also wanted to make sure Culkin really felt afraid of him so he did his best to avoid Culkin on the set. Once, he even accidentally draw blood from Culkin. It was during one of the rehearsal for the coat hook scene when Pesci says, 'I'm gonna bite all your fingers off, one at a time.'" Pesci actually bit him and broke his skin.
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19
Angels with Filthy Souls, the movie Kevin watches in Home Alone, actually doesn’t exist. The gangster flick footage was created specifically for the movie.
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18
The movie was almost exclusively shot in Chicago. The Parisian airport was actually O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, the luxurious business class seats were built on a basketball court of a local high school and the flooded basement was that same school's swimming pool.
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17
The McCallister´s house is actually located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the village of Winnetka, Illinois. The three-story single-family house was listed for sale at $2.4 million in 2011 and sold for $1.585 million in 2012. The house is now promoted as a tourist attraction.
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16
Attentive spectators might have noticed that the iconic movie poster for the film with Macaulay Culkin´s screaming strikingly resembles the Edvard Munch´s famous painting “The Scream.”
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15
What many of us had already thought became official in 2012 when Dr. Ryan St. Claire diagnosed the likely outcomes of the injuries Harry and Marv suffer in the movie – they would have died if the things had been real.
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14
The idea for Home Alone occurred to the producer John Hughes during the making of Uncle Buck, a 1989 comedy which also starred Macaulay Culkin.
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13
The role of Harry was originally offered to Robert de Niro and Jon Lovitz. They both turned it down.
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12
Although the role of Kevin was written specifically for Culkin whom Hughes had already worked with, the producer auditioned another 100 boys just to be sure Culkin was the right choice.
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11
Macaulay´s brother Kieran also starred in the movie. He played the role of Fuller, Kevin´s little bed wetting cousin.
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10
Hillary Wolf, who played Kevin´s older sister Megan, is a successful judo fighter. She even represented the U.S. in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics.
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9
Home Alone is well-known in many countries all over the world but in Poland watching the movie became a totally iconic Christmas tradition. On Christmas 2011, more than 5 million Poles watched the movie, making it the most watched program of the season.
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8
The Talkboy, which appears in the movie, was just meant to be a throwaway non-working prop for Culkin but after seeing it in the movie, fans demanded the toy so within a few years in became a real toy available at stores.
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7
Some people believe Elvis Presley appeared in the movie. Many of those who believe that Elvis is still alive maintain that the heavily bearded man standing in the background of the scene where Kevin´s mother is shouting at the desk clerk is Elvis.
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6
The issue of Playboy that Kevin finds in Buzz’s room is from July 1989 featuring Erika Eleniak, a model and actress best known for her role in Baywatch.
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5
Kevin’s allegedly scary neighbor wasn’t a character in the original script. He was added later on at the suggestion of Columbus who wanted to add up some sentimentality to the movie.
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4
Originally, Kevin was supposed to be haunted with a nightmare about the entire house trying to kill him. Due to potentially expensive filming, the scene was reduced just to the “evil furnace” that was operated by two crew members with fishing lines and flashlights.
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3
John Candy (the polka man) filmed his part in only one but extremely long day – it took him 23 hours to finish the part. The story about having once forgotten his son at a funeral home was entirely improvised.
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2
The "glass" ornaments that Marv steps on were actually made of candy. However, just in case, Stern wore rubber feet for his barefoot scenes.
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1
Macaulay Culkin really drew the map that he uses to set up the traps.
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