How wealthy were the McCallisters in ‘Home Alone’? Family was among 1%

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For over three decades, fans have continuously argued over how wealthy the McCallister family was in Home Alone.

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A Reddit post from nine months ago generated hundreds of comments, and now, a new report by the New York Times is aiming to settle the debate once and for all.

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In an exhaustive study, the newspaper teamed up with economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to determine the estimated property value of the McCallisters’ home in 1990 as well as Chicago-area income data.

The outlet found that Peter (John Heard) and Kate McCallister (Catherine O’Hara) would have needed to earn at least US$305,000 annually in 1990, or about US$665,000 in 2022, to comfortably afford their house, which a Zillow estimate priced at about US$2.4 million in 2022.

Economists suggest that based on that possible asking price, it would only be affordable for households bringing in an annual income of US$730,000.

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In 1990, the house at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka was affordable only for the top 1% of area household incomes, which would still be the case today (Fortune reports that you need to bring home at least US$627,329 to be in that category).

The family’s wealth is hinted at early on when the Wet Bandit thieves Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) are seen scoping out their home. “That’s the one, Marv, that’s the silver tuna,” Harry says.

But the Times’ deep dive also probes how the McCallisters could have afforded their lavish Christmas trip to Paris since what the parents do for work was never addressed in the film.

Todd Strasser, who wrote the official novelizations of Home Alone and two of its sequels, made Kate a fashion designer and Peter a businessman, telling the outlet he thought the choices seemed like “a safe bet” since they were “upper middle class.”

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“I don’t know how much the McCallisters made, but it sure did a lot for my bank account,” Strasser said.

One viral fan theory from 2020 hinted that Peter might have been a mobster and the home was targeted specifically because the Wet Bandits knew the residence was filled with “top-flight goods.” Kevin’s (Macaulay Culkin) “lethal traps” are also evidence he may have been brought up around a life of crime.

“I’m pretty sure he was a mob lawyer or something,” one adherent to this theory added.

“He was a hitman this was confirmed in the director’s cut of Home Alone 3, which ironically doesn’t even feature Kevin in it,” another claimed.

“Maybe Peter inherited it and was a trust fund baby?” one person suggested on Reddit. “He also had a lot of kids (5) and a really chill attitude. He could casually afford to take them all overseas and never once expressed any concern or anxiety about the cost of his wife getting last-minute flights to go back and get Kevin. We don’t see him working on his vacation or stressed about work. The only time he was concerned about money was when Kevin spent a thousand dollars on room service.”

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“Kevin’s dad didn’t make a lot of money,” another posited. “His mother was a super popular fashion designer who made big bucks.”

But Redditors and the Times also pointed out that Peter’s brother is the one who pays for the Paris Christmas vacation, so maybe they weren’t so super rich after all.

At the end of the day, how much money the McCallister family had in their bank account wasn’t really the point of the film — and certainly isn’t why it has endured all these years.

“I feel it’s because it has an emotional connection with people,” the film’s director Chris Columbus suggested in an interview with Insider in 2020. “Sure, people love to laugh and it’s fun, but it’s centred on a specific time of the year when people are hopeful and happy. I think it’s the perfect movie for people to sit around the living room with your entire family and watch it.”

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X: @markhdaniell

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