Poster © 20th Century Fox. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreComedy & Family
RatedNot rated yet
Runtime1 hr 43 mins
ReleasedNovember 16, 1990
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorChris Columbus
StarringMacaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
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Home Alone (1990)
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| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
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| Home Alone's Details | |
| Genre | Comedy & Family |
| Rated | Not rated yet |
| Released | 11/10/1990 (sneak preview); 11/16/1990 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 43 mins |
| Budget | $18M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Home Alone's Interests | |
| General | Cheese pizza, aftershave, Buzz's tarantula, a solo grocery run, a black-and-white gangster movie. |
| Music | John Williams. "Somewhere in My Memory" is basically Christmas now. |
| Movies | The 1992 sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Same kid, wrong plane. |
| Television | Dennis the Menace. Another kid who gives the grown-ups a very long day. |
| Heroes | Kevin McCallister. Eight years old, does his own grocery shopping. |
| Home Alone's Crew | |
| Director | Chris Columbus |
| Writers | John Hughes |
| Producers | John Hughes |
| Cinematography | Julio Macat |
| Music | John Williams |
| Edited By | Raja Gosnell |
| Production | 20th Century Fox, Hughes Entertainment |
| Distributed By | 20th Century Fox |
Kevin’s mom is halfway across the ocean before she notices she’s one kid short, and that isn’t even the worst parenting in this movie. The whole McCallister clan treats Kevin like a houseguest who overstayed, so once he’s left behind you’re kinda rooting for him to never call them. Macaulay Culkin is a natural, and the aftershave scream was a meme before memes had a name. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern get flattened by paint cans and bonked by a falling iron and keep popping back up like cartoon coyotes. There’s also a church scene with the scary neighbor that sneaks real feeling into a slapstick movie. Critics were lukewarm at 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it an A CinemaScore and $477.4 million worldwide. An 8.1 because it’s the meanest family comedy ever made and somehow still the coziest. $501 says you count heads twice in the car before your next family trip.
What works: Macaulay Culkin’s timing, the booby-trap finale, and a sweet subplot about the neighbor everyone fears.
What doesn’t: The family is so mean in the first act that Kevin’s big Christmas wish for them to come back feels unearned.
Who it’s for: Families who need a December tradition, and anyone who ever wanted the house to themselves.
Spoilers
Old Man Marley, the neighbor Kevin was scared of, saves him from the burglars with a snow shovel. Kate makes it home riding with a polka band led by John Candy, the family walks in on Christmas morning, and Marley reunites with his son.
The whole McCallister clan is flying to Paris for Christmas, and eight-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is the one everybody picks on. After a messy fight at dinner, his mom, Kate (Catherine O'Hara), sends him up to the attic for the night, and he wishes his family would vanish. Overnight the wind knocks out the power, everyone oversleeps, and in the rush to the airport nobody counts the kids. Kevin wakes up to an empty house and is thrilled about it. Meanwhile two burglars, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), are working their way down the block. Chris Columbus directs. One hundred three minutes, one kid, zero babysitters.
Anyone who can get to Chicago by Christmas. Bring a cheese pizza.
| Macaulay Culkin | Kevin |
| Joe Pesci | Harry |
| Daniel Stern | Marv |
| John Heard | Peter |
| Roberts Blossom | Marley |
| Catherine O'Hara | Kate |
| Angela Goethals | Linnie |
| Devin Ratray | Buzz |
| Gerry Bamman | Uncle Frank |
| Hillary Wolf | Megan |
| John Candy | Gus Polinski |
| Larry Hankin | Officer Balzak |
| Michael C. Maronna | Jeff |
| Kristin Minter | Heather |
| Daiana Campeanu | Sondra |
| Jedidiah Cohen | Rod |
| Kieran Culkin | Fuller |
| Senta Moses | Tracy |
| Anna Slotky | Brook |
| Terrie Snell | Aunt Leslie |
| Jeffrey Wiseman | Mitch Murphy |
| Virginia Smith | Georgette |
| Matt Doherty | Steffan |
| Ralph Foody | gangster #1 |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $477.4M; Domestic box office $285.8M; Opening weekend $17.1M; Profit / loss (est.) +$211.7M; Rotten Tomatoes 66%; CinemaScore A; box office chart updated; RT 66% (116 reviews); Metacritic 63 / 100; CinemaScore A; IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (757,010 votes); movie.guru score 7.2.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.