Home Alone Director Reveals How the McCallister Family Afforded That Amazing House

Chris Columbus looks at the McCallisters’ professions — and how they ever managed to earn enough money to buy one that house.

Famous Palace Winnetka, Ill., d Alone in the house has been the subject of speculation since the film debuted in 1990. How did Kevin’s parents afford the house — and afford the big family trip to Paris over the holidays? Columbus, the director behind the iconic Christmas movie, spoke furtherThe Hollywood Reporter‘with Chatter about awards podcast on December 24th about the decades-old question of Kevin’s parents’ careers.

The real home – which sold just before Christmas – has five bedrooms and six bathrooms and has hit the market with an asking price of $5.25 million. In the first film, in which the house is central to the plot and the characters, one half of the Wet Bandits robbery duo, Harry (Joe Pesci), says that he originally started “working this street” for the opportunity to rob the beautiful McCallister home.

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The The New York Times and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago estimated the high-paying jobs McCallister’s parents must have had to afford the place, podcast host Scott Feinberg said.

“We thought the mother, at the time — because we used mannequins in the basement, I remember talking — was a very successful fashion designer,” Columbus, 66, confirmed of Catherine O’Hara’s character, Kate.

He continued: “I remember we thought she was a hugely successful fashion designer, which was probably one of the reasons they ended up in Paris.”

House ‘Home Alone’.

Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty

Moviegoers, however, were more intrigued by his father’s occupation. Feinberg noted that the common assumption is that the father (Peter, played by John Heard) was involved in organized crime, which could be why his house was such a target.

Columbus, however, disproved that theory.

“Father could – based on [writer] John Hughes’ own background — he worked in advertising,” Columbus said. “No organized crime, although there was a lot of organized crime in Chicago at the time.”

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Recently, the star of the film, Macaulay Culkin, admitted that he had his eye on the house in the past.

“I was half thinking about buying it — just for a laugh,” the actor admitted earlier in December while speaking at a screening of the film at the Rosemont Theater near Chicago, according to The New York Times.

But he never planned to move into the property himself. Instead, he said, he will turn it into something as iconic as the 1990 film: a “fun house” where people can re-enact scenes like the one where his character sleds down the stairs.

House ‘Home Alone’.

Disney+

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Ultimately, his reason for not buying was reasonable. “I got kids. I’m busy, man,” he said. Culkin has two young sons with his fiancée Brenda Song.

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Source: HIS Education