Just in time for Christmas, these 17 crazy facts about our favorite holiday movie will leave you wanting more. Because from Joe Pesci drawing blood on set, to spin off movies for the least expected cast members, you’ll never believe even half this stuff is true.
No matter how many times you’ve seen Home Alone, you probably didn’t know this rare trivia about the movie.
1. John Candy wrapped in one day.
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Twenty-three hours to be exact.
2. Home Alone is the Christmas movie of choice in Poland.
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With over 5 million views each year on national television, it’s the most watched show of the season.
3. Home Alone (inadvertently) spawned a franchise.
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With the unexpected success of the movie, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (with Columbus again directing a script by Hughes) was quickly put together, along with four sequels, three video games, two board games, a novelization, and other kid-friendly merchandise.
4. Joe Pesci did method acting on set.
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To ensure Culkin truly felt afraid of him on camera, Joe Pesci did his best to avoid Macaulay Culkin on the set. He wanted the young actor to legitimately be afraid of him. Later, Joe Pesci would even (accidentally) draw blood from Culkin. “In the first Home Alone, they hung me up on a coat hook, and Pesci says, ‘I’m gonna bite all your fingers off, one at a time,'” Culkin recalled. “And during one of the rehearsals, he bit me, and it broke the skin.”
5. Home Alone holds a Guinness Record
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Raking in $17,081,997 in its opening weekend, the movie maintained its number one spot for a full 12 weeks and remained in the top 10 until June of the following year. In the end, Home Alone was the highest grossing film of 1990 and earned a Guinness World Record as the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever domestically.
6. Every scene was actually shot in the Chicago area.
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That Parisian airport? It was actually O’Hare International Airport. And those luxurious business class seats they’re taking to Paris? Those were built on the basketball court of a local high school. Remember that flooded basement? It was actually that same school’s swimming pool.
7. The McCallister house is a tourist attraction.
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Located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois, all the shots except those in the bedrooms and the first floor were shot on location. In 2012, the property sold the property for $1.585 million.
8. Harry and Marv probably would have died in real life.
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In 2012, Dr. Ryan St. Clair diagnosed the likely outcome of their injuries at The Week. For instance that iron should have caused a “blowout fracture,” leading to “serious disfigurement and debilitating double vision if not repaired properly.” For the blow torch, the skin and bone tissue on Harry’s skull would have been so damaged and rotted that his skull bone would essentially be dying and likely require a transplant.”
9. The ornaments Marv stepped on weren’t made from glass.
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They were actually candy.
10. Kevin’s tree house was built for the movie only.
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Taken down after filming, it was not included in the 2012 sale of the house.
11. The tarantula on Marv’s face was real.
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He agreed to let it happen, only once, but in order to not frighten the spider, Stern had to mime the scream and have the sound dubbed in later.
12. Marv was supposed to get a spinoff movie.
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The 1995 film Bushwhacked, which stars Daniel Stern as a delivery guy on the run after being framed for murder, was originally intended to have Marv, after giving up a life of crime, be framed for the same murder.
13. The idea for Home Alone was borne on set of Uncle Buck.
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The idea for Home Alone occurred to John Hughes during the making of Uncle Buck, which also starred Macaulay Culkin.
14. Being family friendly was tough for Joe Pesci.
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Inadvertently dropping a few f-bombs on set, the director tried to curb Pesci’s four-letter-word tendency by suggesting he use the word “fridge” instead.
15. Robert DeNiro turned down the role of Harry.
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So did Jon Lovitz.
16. Director Chris Columbus might have regretted casting Culkin.
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“I was much younger and I was really too naive to think about the family environment as well,” Columbus told The Guardian in 2013. “We didn’t know that much about the family at the beginning; as we were shooting, we learned a little more. The stories are hair-raising. I was casting a kid who truly had a troubled family life.”
17. The role of Kevin was specifically written for Macaulay Culkin.
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Although written for him, producers still auditioned a 100 other kids for the role just in case.
(via Mental Floss)
This year, I’m thankful for Home Alone. But after reading this list, I’m even more so. Let the marathon movie watching begin!
