The 1990 film “Home Alone” has secured its place as a cult classic from the ’90s, especially cherished during the Christmas season. The movie features many iconic quotes and storylines, and the famous house was even offered as an Airbnb in a 2021 contest.
A recent study delves into estimating the wealth of the McCallister family from the movie.
What Happened: In recent weeks, a scene from "Home Alone" has gone viral as an example of how inflation has risen over the last year.
As the video below shows, a grocery shopping trip by the film’s protagonist, Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), shows that a list of items costs less than $20 in the film. Today, the same items would tally up to over $72.
The house in the movie, a vacation for a large family, and the significance of the burglars robbing the McCallister family have sparked debates over the years about their wealth.
The New York Times asked experts at the Federal Reserve to estimate the family’s wealth.
A straightforward indicator of the family’s potential wealth is the house in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. According to the report, the neighborhood was one of the most expensive in the U.S. back in 1990, likely accessible only to those in the top 1% of Chicago incomes. Federal Reserve experts told The New York Times that this would still hold true today, provided the McCallister family doesn’t allocate more than 30% of their income to housing.
In 2022, a Zillow Group ZG estimate pegged the home’s value at $2.4 million, conceivably within reach for someone earning $730,000 annually.
Estimating the family’s wealth is more challenging without knowing the parents’ occupations, as the movie does not explicitly mention them. Internet rumors speculate that Kate McCallister might be a fashion designer due to mannequins in the home. There are also rumors about Peter McCallister having connections to organized crime.
Todd Strasser, a writer of the movie novelizations, shared that he envisioned Kate as a fashion designer and Peter as a businessman.
The movie also hints at Uncle Rob, who footed the bill for 15 people to fly to France and owns an apartment in Paris near the Eiffel Tower, potentially indicating wealth.
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Why It's Important: Without an exact explanation of the occupations or their incomes, it's hard to know exactly how rich the McCallister family is. The experts from the Federal Reserve suggest the family is in the 1% at the time of the film.
The wet bandit burglars specifically targeted the rich Illinois neighborhood and called out the McCallister house as being one of the key houses to rob. Given the estimates of their income and wealth, it's no wonder the house was a key target.
Released in 1990 by 20th Century Fox, the film is now part of The Walt Disney Company DIS and can be streamed on Disney+. The film sparked several sequels and remains one of the most celebrated Christmas films of the last three decades.
The film grossed $285.8 million domestically and $476.7 million worldwide. With a release in November, the film enjoyed strength at the box office in both 1990 and 1991 and was the third highest-grossing film domestically of each year.
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