Writer and producer John Hughes came up with the idea for the film while he was preparing to go on vacation. In one of the interviews he recalled – “I was packing for a vacation and made a list of everything I didn’t want to forget. I also thought that I had better not forget my children. year-old son alone at home? What would he do then?” Hughes then prepared eight pages of notes, which later turned into a screenplay.
Home Alone turns 32. And it might not have happened at all
The film got the green light, but there were some budget problems. The project was picked up by Warner Bros. – the opportunity was tempting, because Hughes promised that he would be able to make it for less than 10 million dollars. This is much less than the average budgets of most productions at the time. However, the screenwriter was afraid that he might exceed the declared sum, so he secretly met with representatives of 20th Century Fox. He wanted to make sure he had someone to turn to if Warner proved “inflexible.” Intuition told him well.
The matter was all the more pressing as the budget swelled to $14.7 million early in production, and the studio demanded a $1.2 million cut. The producers wrote back that it really can’t go any lower. Warner didn’t really believe it and decided to drop the project. Fox himself benefited from this, who immediately took over the topic and put up the necessary money: in the end, the budget was 18 million dollars.
Undoubtedly, it was money well spent: the production earned $ 476.7 million in cinemas around the world, making “The Hangover 2” the highest-grossing comedy of all time until its release. it was also praised for its excellent cast, humor and soundtrack. In fact, the Christmas comedy received nominations for the Golden Globes (Best Comedy, Best Actor) and Oscars (Song and Soundtrack).
Chris Columbus was responsible for directing (he made the first two Harry Potter films years later), but it was Hughes who suggested him to cast Macaulay Culkin in the lead role. The young actor made a good impression on him while working on the film “Uncle Buck”. Columbus auditioned over 200 other actors first anyway because he felt it was his “director’s duty.” When he finally met Culkin, he admitted it was an excellent choice.
Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz turned down the role of burglar Harry. Ultimately, Joe Pesci agreed. Interestingly, cinematographer Julio Macat mentioned that Pesci was harder to work with than Culkin. The experienced actor felt that some of the dialogue was below his acting talent. Apparently, he also complained that the shooting starts too early, because he could not start the day with his favorite round of golf. The film was shot in 83 days, starting on February 14 and ending on May 8, 1990.
Home Alone grossed $17 million on its opening weekend, nearly making up for its production costs. The film also held the #1 spot at the box office for 12 weeks, from November 16 to the first weekend in February in 1991. The Christmas comedy was degraded only by the movie “Sleeping with the Enemy”.
The phenomenon of “Kevin home alone” in Poland
Watching “Home Alone” at Christmas is a secular tradition in Poland. The phenomenon of popularity of this production in our country is so great that separate paragraphs are devoted to it on the American version of Wikipedia.
An entry about the popularity of ‘Kevin Home Alone’ in Poland Wikipedia
English-speaking users of the site can find out that “‘Kevin home alone’ is very popular in Poland, when Polsat broadcasts it every Christmas Eve. In 2010, Polsat did not release the film, which caused tens of thousands of people to protest at Facebook. In 2016, over 4.44 million Poles turned on Polsat to watch ‘Home Alone’. After 2010, the slogan ‘Christmas without him? It’s absolutely impossible!’
Later, he explains to readers unfamiliar with our reality that “films such as ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Die Glass’ are very popular in Poland during Christmas, because they are one of the first Western films released in the country after the fall of communism. In 2000, ‘Kevin Alone’ on Christmas Eve was watched by 8.9 million Poles, and in 2017, on the same day, this number was close to four million, which is 11.6 percent of the country’s population.
We all remember what happened when Polsat wanted to give up the film in 2010. Protest action on Facebook under the slogan “Polsat killed Christmas 2010 – this year there will be no Kevin!” then collected 50,000 people (and some sources say even 90,000!).
In the face of such a clearly expressed will of the people, the station’s programming council bowed and restored the Christmas classic to the schedule. The station really pays to run this movie. In 2018, the Polsat spokesman informed us that the largest audience in front of TV sets was gathered in December 2003, when “Kevin” was watched by almost seven million viewers (then the station broadcast it for the first time – it had previously appeared on other channels). What’s more, the interest of viewers does not fade away: “‘Kevin alone at home’ has always ensured us a leading position in the broadcasting band, and the average audience of premiere broadcasts is 4.5 million viewers” – reported Tomasz Matwiejczuk.
Source: Gazeta
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
