Home Alone (franchise)

"Kevin McCallister" redirects here. For the Scottish former footballer, see Kevin McAllister. For the Boeing executive, see Kevin G. McAllister. For the Argentine footballer, see Kevin Mac Allister.

Home Alone
Official franchise logo
Created by	John Hughes
Original work	Home Alone (1990)
Owner	20th Century Studios
Years	1990–present
Films and television
Film(s)	Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone 3 (1997) Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Television film(s)	Home Alone 4 (2002) Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)
Games
Video game(s)	Home Alone (1991) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone (2006)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)	Home Alone (1990)

Home Alone is a series of American Christmas family comedy films originally created by John Hughes. Chris Columbus directed Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Raja Gosnell directed Home Alone 3 (1997), Rod Daniel directed Home Alone 4 (2002), Peter Hewitt directed Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012) and Dan Mazer directed Home Sweet Home Alone (2021). The films revolve around the adventures of surrounding children who find themselves alone during the holiday season and faced with the challenge of defending their family's house or themselves from invading burglars and criminals.

The first three films were released theatrically by 20th Century Fox, while the following two made-for-television films were produced by Fox Television Studios and aired on the Disney-owned ABC. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, a sixth film in the franchise was produced by the newly renamed 20th Century Studios for the Disney-owned streaming service Disney+.

Films

Film	Protagonist	U.S. release date	Director(s)	Screenwriter(s)	Producer(s)
Home Alone	Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin)	November 16, 1990	Chris Columbus	John Hughes	John Hughes
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York		November 20, 1992
Home Alone 3	Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz)	December 12, 1997	Raja Gosnell		John Hughes Hilton A. Green
Home Alone 4	Kevin McCallister (Mike Weinberg)	November 3, 2002	Rod Daniel	Debra Frank Steve L. Hayes	Mitch Engel
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist	Finn Baxter (Christian Martyn) Alexis Baxter (Jodelle Ferland)	November 25, 2012	Peter Hewitt	Aaron Ginsburg Wade McIntyre	Kim Todd
Home Sweet Home Alone	Max Mercer (Archie Yates)	November 12, 2021	Dan Mazer	Mikey Day Streeter Seidell	Hutch Parker Dan Wilson

Home Alone (1990)

Main article: Home Alone

Home Alone is primarily a coming-of-age story about an 8-year-old boy named Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin). He is the youngest of five children who is frequently bullied by his older brothers and sisters. After events transpire between him and his family, he wishes that he had no family when his mother is punishing him for what he feels are unjustified reasons. She warns him to be careful what he wishes for and he ignores it. He wakes up the next day to discover that he is the only one left in the house. He thinks his wish came true and that he is finally alone without his obnoxious family. In reality, he was left home by mistake. His family is in route to France for a holiday trip. While his parents realize their mistake and scramble to get back to the United States, Harry and Marv, a pair of thieves known as the "Wet Bandits", attempt to burglarize the house. Kevin makes it seem like the house is not empty and fills the house with a collection of homemade booby traps. Kevin manages to trap the bandits and they get arrested, just as his family return home. The film became the highest-grossing film of 1990, grossing $476,684,675 worldwide. The film initially received mixed reviews from critics upon release, although reception became more favorable over the years. It was widely popular with audiences. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Score for John Williams and Best Original Song for "Somewhere in My Memory", but lost to Dances with Wolves and Dick Tracy respectively. Macaulay Culkin's performance garnered him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but lost to Gérard Depardieu for his performance in Green Card.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)

Main article: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Set one year after the events of the first film, Kevin McCallister loses track of his family at the airport to which he accidentally gets on a plane headed for New York City while the rest of the McCallisters fly to Florida. Now alone in one of the largest cities in the world, Kevin cons his way into a room at the Plaza Hotel and begins his usual antics, such as purchasing exorbitant amounts of sweets and junk food, or renting a limousine. When Kevin discovers that the Wet Bandits (now the Sticky Bandits) Harry and Marv are on the loose again, he stops them from robbing charity money from Duncan's Toy Chest on Christmas Eve by setting up booby traps in his uncle's partially renovated house.

Home Alone 3 (1997)

Main article: Home Alone 3

Home Alone 3 does not center on Kevin or any of the original cast and characters, but is instead focused on Alex Pruitt (played by Alex D. Linz), a young boy who is left home alone with chickenpox. At the same time, four international criminals are hired to steal a top-secret microchip that can act as a cloaking device for a missile. They succeed in stealing it and hide it in a remote controlled car, but due to a luggage mix-up at an airport with the Pruitts' neighbor Mrs. Hess, the car ends up in the hands of Alex who is given the car for shoveling the snow in her driveway. After realizing their mistake, the thieves begin systematically searching every house on his street. Once they realize that Alex has the chip, they invade his house. He devises elaborate traps and bamboozles the four crooks with the help of his pets and some intricate tripwires, all the while monitoring them with a video camera on the toy car. The film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Remake or Sequel, eventually losing the award to Speed 2: Cruise Control.

Home Alone 4 (2002)

Main article: Home Alone 4

The fourth installment was directed by Rod Daniel and premiered as a television film on ABC on November 3, 2002. This film returns to the original's main character, Kevin (played by Mike Weinberg), and one of the Wet/Sticky Bandits, Marv (played by French Stewart). Kevin's parents have separated, and he lives with his mother. He decides to spend Christmas with his father and his father's rich girlfriend, Natalie, while they host a visiting prince at her mansion. Kevin has to deal with his old nemesis as Marv tries to kidnap the prince with the help of Vera, Marv's new wife and sidekick (played by Missi Pyle), and a seeming unlikely servant as their inside person. It was released to Region 1 DVD on October 20, 2003. Filming began on July 29 in Cape Town, South Africa. Home Alone 4 is the first film in the series that had no involvement from John Hughes and was not theatrically released.

Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012)

Main article: Home Alone: The Holiday Heist

On March 15, 2012, ABC Family announced the development of the fifth installment in the Home Alone series. It premiered exclusively on ABC Family's Countdown to the 25 Days of Christmas on November 25, 2012. The film stars Christian Martyn, Jodelle Ferland, Malcolm McDowell, Debi Mazar, and Eddie Steeples. The story centers on the Baxter family's relocation from California to Maine, where Finn becomes convinced that his new house is haunted. When his parents become stranded across town, Finn sets traps to catch his new home's ghosts, but instead proves troublesome for a group of three thieves (McDowell, Mazar, and Steeples) who plot to steal a valuable painting in the basement of the house.

Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)

Main article: Home Sweet Home Alone

In August 2019, following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a new film in the franchise, Home Sweet Home Alone, was in development, and would premiere on the company's streaming service, Disney+. By October of the same year, Dan Mazer had entered negotiations to direct the film, with a script co-written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. Hutch Parker and Dan Wilson will serve as producers. The plot centered around a boy named Max, who faces off against a married couple after he allegedly steals something of theirs. Filming was reported to begin in the first quarter of 2020, with casting underway. In November, it was confirmed that the film would be shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, taking place from February to April. In December 2019, Archie Yates was cast as the lead, with Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper set to play antagonists.

In March 2020, filming on all Disney projects, including Home Alone which had begun filming in Canada, were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and industry restrictions worldwide. In July 2020, Ally Maki, Kenan Thompson, Chris Parnell, Aisling Bea, Pete Holmes, Timothy Simons, and Mikey Day had joined the cast. By November 2020, filming on all the movies that had been postponed by the coronavirus had resumed filming, and in some cases completed principal photography.

The film stars Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Archie Yates, Aisling Bea, Kenan Thompson, Tim Simons, Pete Holmes, Ally Maki, and Chris Parnell.

Stoned Alone

In July 2018, Ryan Reynolds was attached to produce Stoned Alone, an R-rated Home Alone sequel film. Augustine Frizzell was hired to serve as director, with a script written by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider based on the story concept by Fox Executive, Matt Reilly. The project was to be a joint-venture production under Reynolds' Fox-based Maximum Effort Productions, with George Dewey serving as an executive producer. The premise of the proposed project was stated as 'reminiscent of the hallowed comedy classic'. The plot centers on a weed-growing 'loser' who misses his plane for a holiday skiing trip. He decides to get high, and as the paranoia side-effects set in, he believes he hears a break-in. As he discovers thieves have broken into his home, fully stoned and fueled by the weed, he tries to 'defend his castle'.

The next month on August 8, Frizzell said that the script for Stoned Alone was being tweaked in order to enhance the emotional Christmas side of the story, with the goal being to have the film feel as much like the original Home Alone films as possible; noting that as a fan of the films as well as of Chris Columbus, it was important to get the story right. She also stated that production will not begin, until everyone involved feels like they've reached that point. On August 27, following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a new PG-rated family-friendly Home Alone film (later titled Home Sweet Home Alone) was in development for Disney+, with Stoned Alone entering development hell.

Cast and crew

Principal cast

List indicators

This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in the franchise.

• An empty, dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's official presence has not yet been confirmed.
•  ^A indicates an appearance through archival footage or audio.
•  ^V indicates a voice-only role.
•  ^Y indicates a younger version of the character.

Character	Films						Short film
	Home Alone	Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	Home Alone 3	Home Alone 4	Home Alone: The Holiday Heist	Home Sweet Home Alone	Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant
Introduced in Home Alone
Kevin McCallister	Macaulay Culkin			Mike Weinberg			Macaulay Culkin
Harry Lyme	Joe Pesci						Joe PesciA
Marv Murchins	Daniel Stern			French Stewart			Daniel SternA
Kate McCallister	Catherine O'Hara			Clare Carey
Peter McCallister	John Heard			Jason Beghe
Buzz McCallister	Devin Ratray			Gideon Jacobs		Devin Ratray
Megan McCallister	Hillary Wolf			Chelsea Russo
Linnie McCallister	Angela Goethals	Maureen Elizabeth Shay
Jeff McCallister	Michael C. Maronna
Frank McCallister	Gerry Bamman
Leslie McCallister	Terrie Snell
Fuller McCallister	Kieran Culkin
Rod McCallister	Jedidiah Cohen
Tracy McCallister	Senta Moses
Sondra McCallister	Daiana Campeanu
Brooke McCallister	Anna Slotky
Old Man Marley	Roberts Blossom
Gus Polinski	John Candy
Heather McCallister	Kristin Minter
Mitch Murphy	Jeffrey Wiseman
Introduced in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Mr. Hector		Tim Curry
Pigeon Lady		Brenda Fricker
Cedric		Rob Schneider
Fashion Model		Leigh Zimmerman
E.F. Duncan		Eddie Bracken
Introduced in Home Alone 3
Alex Pruitt			Alex D. Linz
Peter Beaupre			Aleksander Krupa
Earl Unger			David Thornton
Burton Jernigan			Lenny Von Dohlen
Alice Ribbons			Rya Kihlstedt
Karen Pruitt			Haviland Morris
Mrs. Hess			Marian Seldes
Parrot			Darren T. KnausV
FBI Agent Stuckey			Christopher Curry
Stan Pruitt			Seth Smith
Molly Pruitt			Scarlett Johansson
Jack Pruitt			Kevin Kilner
Introduced in Home Alone 4
Vera Murchins				Missi Pyle
Molly Murchins				Barbara Babcock
Mr. Prescott				Erick Avari
Natalie Kalban				Joanna Going
The Crown Prince				Craig Geldenhuys
Introduced in Home Alone: The Holiday Heist
Finn Baxter					Christian Martyn
Sinclair					Malcolm McDowell
Jessica					Debi Mazar
Hughes					Eddie Steeples
Alexis Baxter					Jodelle Ferland
Catherine Baxter					Ellie Harvie
Curtis Baxter					Doug Murray
Simon Hassler					Bill Turnball
Mr. Carson					Ed Asner
Mason					Peter DaCunha
Introduced in Home Sweet Home Alone
Maxwell "Max" Mercer						Archie Yates
Jeff McKenzie						Rob Delaney
Pam McKenzie						Ellie Kemper
Carol Mercer						Aisling Bea
Hunter						Tim Simons
Mei						Ally Maki
Abby McKenzie						Katie Beth Hall Justine ArchambaultY
Chris McKenzie						Max Ivutin Amadeo CorreiaY
Ollie						Aiden Wang Allan Wang
Gavin Washington						Kenan Thompson
Stu Mercer						Chris Parnell
Blake Mercer						Pete Holmes
Mike Mercer						Andy Daly
Katie Mercer						Maddie Holliday
Angels film series characters
Johnny	Ralph Foody					John Novak	Ralph FoodyA
Snakes	Michael Guido					Eddie G.
Carlotta		Clare Hoak

Additional crew and production details

Film	Crew/Detail
	Composer	Cinematographer	Editor(s)	Production companies	Distributing companies
Home Alone	John Williams	Julio Macat	Raja Gosnell	Hughes Entertainment	20th Century Fox
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Home Alone 3	Nick Glennie-Smith		Bruce Green & Malcolm Campbell
Home Alone 4	Teddy Castellucci	Peter Benison	John Coniglio & Michael A. Stevenson	Fox Television Studios 20th Century Fox Television	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist	David Kitay		John Coniglio	Original Pictures Fox Television Studios Manitoba Film and Video Production Tax Credit
Home Sweet Home Alone	John Debney	Mitchell Amundsen	David Rennie	20th Century Studios Hutch Parker Entertainment	Disney+

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office revenue			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference
		United States	International	Worldwide	All time domestic	All time worldwide
Home Alone	November 16, 1990	$285,761,243	$190,923,432	$476,684,675	#38 (#36(A))	#68	$18 million
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	November 20, 1992	$173,585,516	$185,409,334	$358,994,850	#137 (#138(A))	#151	$28 million
Home Alone 3	December 12, 1997	$30,882,515	$48,200,000	$79,082,515	#1,807	—	$32 million
Total		$490,229,274	$424,532,766	$914,762,040			$70 million
List indicator(s) A grey cell with N/A indicates information is Not Available. (A) indicates the adjusted totals based on current ticket prices (calculated by Box Office Mojo).

Critical and public response

For the first, second and third films, they received mixed and positive reviews by critics, while the fourth, fifth and sixth film received negative reviews by critics.

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore
Home Alone	66% (116 reviews)	63 (9 reviews)	A
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York	35% (57 reviews)	46 (22 reviews)	A-
Home Alone 3	32% (25 reviews)	—	B+
Home Alone 4	N/A (2 reviews)	—	—
Home Alone: The Holiday Heist	N/A (1 review)	—	—
Home Sweet Home Alone	15% (71 reviews)	39 (12 reviews)	—

Music

Title	U.S. release date	Length	Composer(s)	Label
Home Alone: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	December 4, 1990 (cassette) May 27, 2015 (CD)	56:58	John Williams	CBS Masterworks
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – Original Score	November 20, 1992	1:03:20		Arista Records, 20th Century Fox Film Scores
Home Alone 3: Music from the Motion Picture	December 12, 1997		Various	Fox Music

Other media

Merchandise

Twentieth Century Fox's licensing division predicted that $500 million worth of Home Alone II items would be sold but sales were half that amount according to industry publication The Licensing Letter.

Novelizations

Home Alone (ISBN 0-590-55066-7) was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1990 to coincide with the film. On October 6, 2015, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie, an illustrated book (ISBN 1-594-74858-6) by Kim Smith and Quirk Books was released.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was novelized by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1992 to coincide with the film. The "point" version, which have the same storyline, was also novelized by A.L. Singer. It has an ISBN of 0-590-45717-9. An audiobook version was also released read by Tim Curry (who played the concierge in the film).

A novelization based on the screenplay Home Alone 3 was written by Todd Strasser and published by Scholastic in 1997 to coincide with the film. ISBN 0-590-95712-0

Video games

Home Alone was released in 1991 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES, Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Amiga, MS-DOS, and Game Boy. The objective is to escape the Wet Bandits while bringing all the McCallister's fortunes from the house down to the safe room in the basement. Once all items have been sent down the chute to the basement Kevin must make it past rats, bats, and ghosts he encounters in the basement, then fight the spider king so he can make it to the safe room to lock away all his families riches.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released on the Super NES, NES, and Game Boy in 1992, and the MS-DOS, Sega Genesis, and NES in 1993. Though it is based on the film in terms of plot and additional dialogue, the game was different from the film. The NES port uses sound effects from the early 1990s Simpsons games; Bart vs. the Space Mutants for example. The Super NES version, while boasting a soundtrack with the Super NES traditionally realistic sounding instrument synth, suffered due to slightly post-8-bit graphics and sound effects, as well as a disjointed feel of incontinuity between stages. The game got negative reception from Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Home Alone is an action game based on the first film and released in Europe only. The game was published by Blast! Entertainment Limited and released for the PlayStation 2 on December 1, 2006. The game features 10 levels, each taking place inside a house. The player chooses from one of four playable characters: Carl, Carly, Kelly or Kevin. The player's goal is to use objects to defeat burglars attempting to break into the house. The game includes a two-player option.

Advertising

In an advertisement short film titled Home Alone Again with the Google Assistant for the Google Assistant published on December 19, 2018, Macaulay Culkin reprised his Home Alone role as Kevin McCallister. The ad recreates scenes from the original 1990 film, where Kevin shaves his face, jumps on his parents bed, and decorates a Christmas tree all while asking the Google Assistant to set reminders for him. The advertisement quickly went viral. Ralph Foody, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern also appear in their Home Alone roles via archival footage. In addition, Joe Pesci appears present-day in a version of the commercial made for Super Bowl LIII involving his character hosting a fictionalized watch party for the Super Bowl with the commercial coming on.

Film

In the 2019 film Detective Pikachu, the lead character Tim Goodman (played by Justice Smith) enters his father's apartment and discovers the TV on with the movie Angels with Filthy Souls playing on it. Regarding its inclusion, director Rob Letterman stated, "Truth be told, we were just looking for the perfect placeholder...Mark Sanger, our editor, dropped it in, and it just fit perfectly."

See also

• Bushwhacked
• Bone Alone