Regarding Christmas movies, opinions vary a lot!
We gave our team at F.Fonseca a choice about which one is “their” Christmas favorite and nearly 60% picked “Home Alone”.
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59% - Home Alone 🏆
15% - Die Hard
13% - Grinch
13% - Love Actually

The movie almost got cancelled — but it was saved in time 🚫

Chris Colombus and screenwriter John Hughes pitched the movie to Warner Bros, that approved it with a budget of roughly 10 million dollars. But as production went on, the team realized they would need a bigger budget – it ended up reaching almost 14,7 million dollars (the equivalent of 13,2 million euros).
Although they had a very limited budget to work with – there weren’t any big expectations for the Christmas comedy – Warner Bros didn’t want to expand their initial budget. On the contrary, they actually decided to shut down the entire project. One of the production directors from the studio actually told every department that the movie would never get made and they should all go home.
John Hughes had already met, in secret, with executives of the rival studio, 20th Century Fox – because he had anticipated these issues with Warner Bros – so the minute it was cancelled it was also brought back and saved by Fox. Warner Bros later bitterly regretted their decision.


“Home Alone” was shot in a high school 🏠

The amazing welcoming home from the original “Home Alone” was a house from a high middle class area in Chicago, USA. Even so, all the interior shots were filmed somewhere else – a closed down high school. The team set up all the house sets in the school's sports hall and used the pool to drain the water in the scene where the home basement is flooded.
 

Marv was supposed to be interpreted by another Daniel 💰

The movie had two bad guys: Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. Originally, the role was offered to Stern, who took the offer, but production – still under Warner Bros – had to be extended for a couple of months and no extra money had been given to the budget. So, Stern refused the role because they wouldn’t raise his pay.
Because of this waiver, another Daniel was offered the role, actor Dan Roebuck. The only issue now was that him and Joe Pesci didn’t have a lot of chemistry in front of the cameras. So eventually production called Stern again and he agreed to come back. He and Joe Pesci had already acted together – eight years prior in “I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can” – and had become friends. They were the perfect pair of partners in crime.
 

Joe Pesci invented a language to not say bad words on set 💬

Pesci, famous for movies like “Raging Bull”, “Goodfellas” and “Casino” — all Martin Scorsese films – was more than used to saying bad words on set, something he couldn’t do in this family Christmas movie.
So, he almost developed his own language – full of interjections and cartoonish sayings – to use in scenes where his character was frustrated or mad at all of Kevin’s tricks and traps. Later, that became his trademark for the “Home Alone” saga.
 

The jumps and falls were inspired by cartoons 💥

On the show “The Movies That Made Us”, filmmaker Julio Macat recalls he had to think of Kevin’s traps as if they were cartoons. The timing of the villain’s falls and their panicked faces, were all based on cartoons. There were no special effects, so it was necessary that a team of doubles did all those falls and difficult stunts.
 

No one believed it was possible to have a John Williams soundtrack 🎼

When Chris Colombus watched the very first version of “Home Alone he didn’t really like the soundtrack. He was with other production members when he joked about getting the famous composer from “Star Wars” or “Indiana Jones” John Williams on their team.
Thinking they had nothing to lose, they sent Williams a copy of the movie’s initial version. He ended up liking it so much he agreed to compose the whole soundtrack of “Home Alone”.
 

John Candy made less money than the pizza delivery boy actor 🍕

John Candy was a Hollywood star of the time and a great friend of John Hughes, the creator of “Home Alone”. Colombus rewrote the script to give it a more Christmas feel – and Candy did them a favor by being in some scenes.
John Candy was such a big personality he got to improvise the whole polka sequence. He filmed for a total period of 23 hours and made only 414 dollars (the equivalent of 373 euros), a symbolic gesture — he earned less than Dan Charles, the pizza delivery boy extra.