20 things you probably didn't know about 'Home Alone'

Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . It's been over 30 years since "Home Alone" premiered, but it remains a beloved holiday classic. Fans may not know that Macaulay Culkin improvised one of the film's most iconic moments. The cast almost looked a little different, and Culkin's brother also made a guest appearance. The holidays wouldn't be the same without the "Home Alone" franchise . Few people can resist the shenanigans of a young Macaulay Culkin as he finds himself left behind to defend the house while his family heads to Paris for Christmas break. Here are some fun facts you may not know about "Home Alone." It took weeks to find the right house for the film. It took several weeks for director Chris Columbus, writer John Hughes, and the crew to find the McCallister house for "Home Alone." Ultimately, they chose a house in Winnetka, Illinois, because they thought it was both warm and menacing. "I took some pictures and sent them over to John, and I remember John saying: 'This is perfect. This is exactly how I imagined the house,'" he told Entertainment Weekly in 2015. Warner Bros. initially had the rights to the screenplay. Although the film was ultimately produced by Hughes Entertainment and presented by 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. initially held the rights to the project. Then, a budget dispute between Warner Bros. studio and producers occurred three weeks before the production of "Home Alone" was set to start, according to a 2015 article in Chicago magazine. "The question was, 'Do we lay everyone off?'" associate producer Mark Radcliffe told the publication. "John [Hughes] said to just hold tight." Luckily, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to the film, and production continued as planned. The film held a cinematic record for nearly 30 years. Forbes reported that until 2017, "Home Alone" had the highest single-territory total for a live-action comedy, with $285.7 million. The film held this impressive record for 27 years, until the Chinese film "Never Say Die" surpassed it in 2017 (without accounting for inflation). Regardless, "Home Alone" is still one of the highest-grossing live-action comedies in the US. Culkin's younger brother appeared in the movie. In his first acting credit, Culkin's younger brother Kieran appeared as Kevin's cousin, Fuller, in "Home Alone." The brothers appeared together on-screen again in "Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York." The film was written in just over a week. Hughes, who also wrote 1980s blockbusters like "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink," and "Sixteen Candles," crafted the first draft of the screenplay for "Home Alone" in just nine days. According to the same Chicago magazine article - which was written by his son, James - the film was written after a family trip to Europe in response to his father's severe traveler's anxiety. "I was going away on vacation," Hughes told Time magazine in 1990, "and making a list of everything I didn't want to forget. I thought, 'Well, I'd...

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