The battle between 8-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) and the two robbers known as the Wet Bandit in Home Alone has been played on screens around the world every Christmas since the film was first released in 1990. It has been unfolding.
And each year, for some viewers, the McAllister family's grand home and lifestyle make them wonder just how wealthy this family was and inspire their own traditions.
The New York Times consulted economists and film industry experts to find out.
The McAllisters are one percent.
Early in the film, one of the robbers, Harry (Joe Pesci), tells fellow Wet Bandit Marv (Daniel Stern) that the McAllister house is their prime target in a wealthy neighborhood.
“That's it, Marv, that's a silver tuna,” Harry says, before going on to say that the house is full of “premium items” including a VCR, stereo, very fine jewelry, and “strange securities.” I guessed that it was.
The best clue to how much money the McAllisters have is their home.
The silver tuna, or what it looks like, is a real-life home at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, according to Realtor.com. He is one of the most exclusive areas in the United States. There seems to be enough space for Kevin and his four brothers to each have their own room, but it can also accommodate a large group of visitors.
In 1990, only the top 1 percent of Chicago household incomes could afford this kind of home, and that's still the case today, according to Chicago Fed economists.
Economist — Max Gillette, Senior Research Analyst. Cindy Hull is assistant vice president and interim head of the financial markets group. Senior Business Economist Thomas Walstrom looked at data such as household income, home equity values, prevailing mortgage rates at the time, and general taxes and insurance for the Chicago metropolitan statistical area in 1990 and 2022. This decision was made after careful consideration.
Economists found that for a household with an income of $305,000 in 1990 (about $665,000 in 2022), housing was I also decided that it would have been reasonably priced.
Based on Zillow's “Home Alone” home estimates, similar homes are expected to cost about $2.4 million by mid-2022. Economists say a home at that price would be affordable for a household with an income of $730,000, which is in the top 1% of households in the Chicago area.
How are they so rich?
In Home Alone, it is never explained what the parents do for work.
On the Internet, where this question appears regularly, some have suggested that Kate McAllister is a fashion designer. This is because there are several mannequins in the house, which later appear when Kevin tries to trick the robbers into thinking he is not. , I'm home alone.
Todd Strasser, who wrote the official novelizations for Home Alone and its two sequels, said in an interview that he did not receive strict oversight from the filmmakers. He said the guidance was essentially, “Here's the script. Do whatever you want.”
So in the book, he made Kevin's mother a fashion designer and Kevin's father a businessman for Mannequin because, he said, “it was a safe bet.”
He said he had no desire to elaborate on how the McAllisters obtained the money. He believed they were “upper middle class” but not “ultra wealthy.”
Although this family is not very rich, there are other traps that make them wealthy. Sure she's wearing nice clothes and hiring multiple vans to take her to the airport, but when Kate tries to bribe an elderly couple into giving up their plane tickets from Paris, she's at home. offers jewelry and cash, but hints that the Rolex may be fake.
“I don't know how much money the McAllisters made, but they certainly contributed a lot to my bank account,” Strasser said.
One fan theory is that Peter McAllister is involved in organized crime. According to this theory, McAllister's home was specifically targeted as some kind of revenge, and Kevin's brutal violence against the robbers is the product of an upbringing that exposed him to criminal activity.
The Times could not rule out this theory.
Uncle Rob paid for my flight.
Christmas trips to Paris are often cited as data on family wealth.
Flying 15 people to Paris is expensive, especially with four adults flying first class, but Kevin's parents won't pay for the tickets. Early in the film, Kate McAllister tells a police officer (actually Harry in disguise) that her husband's brother paid for her flight.
That brother is Uncle Rob. He's a minor character in the first film, but the few mentions he gets suggest he's putting in a lot of effort. He has paid for the tickets, has an apartment in Paris with a great view of the Eiffel Tower, and manages to accommodate 15 members of his family. (The film's sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, further hints that Uncle Rob is wealthy, but this analysis is based on the first film only.)
Uncle Frank (Mean), the third brother, lives in Ohio and travels with his family from Illinois to Paris. I don't know anything about his income, but I know he's cheap. At his brother's house in Illinois, he avoids paying $122.50 for a pizza. On his plane, while dining in first class, he told his wife to put a crystal salt and pepper shaker in her bag.
This behavior may suggest that he is wealthy. A 2008 paper published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that shoplifting was “significantly more common” among people with household incomes above $70,000.
Robert Bulman, a sociology professor at St. Mary's University in California who studies the representation of teenagers and high school students in movies, says Uncle Frank is based on the world of John Hughes, who wrote and produced “Home Alone.'' He says that he is also a typical adult character.
He said that a common feature of Hughes' films is dramatic tension, fueled by conflict between young people and adults, which is almost always resolved in the young people's favor.
He noted that in Hughes' teen films (such as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink), class tensions are also often prominent and serve as a driving force in driving the story forward.
“His stories often favor the perspective of a working-class child, for example, or a poor child trying to gain access to a more affluent peer group,” Professor Bulman said. “But in 'Home Alone,' it's definitely a win for Kevin as a kid, but it's also a win for Kevin as a rich kid guarding an impressive fortress.”
This movie is not about money.
“Home Alone” set decorator Eve Corey was responsible for decorating the interior of the McAllister family, which was filmed on a set built at a local high school, including furniture and wallpaper.
She said in an email that the home didn't have expensive furniture but purposely had a “stately, upscale look.”
At the time the movie was made, Corey said, navy blue and dusty pink were popular interior design colors. But she began using saturated reds, greens, and golds in her parents' home, inspired by Norman's Rockwell paintings and antique Christmas cards for her.
Hughes said he told her he wanted the house to have a “timeless look.” “He told me that he likes his films to look a little more beautiful and prettier than reality, because the purpose of making films is to entertain the audience and uplift his mood,” she said. Ta.
Cory also had some advice for people looking for answers about their family's income.
“With all due respect to me, fans who discuss their parents' income and housing costs should rather enjoy the movie,” she said.
Hughes and director Chris Columbus “created this heartwarming and comical film to entertain audiences and lift their spirits for the holiday season,” she said. “It was and still is uplifting.”
