Macaulay Culkin Wanted to Buy the ‘Home Alone’ Mansion
Beloved Christmas classic (and low-key Saw prequel) Home Alone stars Macaulay Culkin as eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, Catherine O’Hara as his wildly negligent mother and John Heard as his weirdly chill dad who may or may not be connected to organized crime.
Plus, Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern play the Wet Bandits, two impoverished tradesmen who desperately turn to a life of crime, only to be brutally tortured by an eight-year-old who just got his first taste of Yuletide bloodlust.
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But one of the most popular stars of the movie isn’t actually a human being: it’s the stately McCallister house. In real life, the house is located in Winnetka, Illinois, and it’s a frequent destination for movie fans, as well as cops who are seemingly determined to not let any more fictional break-ins happen there.
The house, now stripped of all its original charm, has been listed for sale for quite a while, but according to Zillow, the $5.25 million property is currently “pending.” While we don’t know who its newest resident will be just yet, it turns out that it could have gone to the most perfect owner imaginable: Macaulay Culkin.
Culkin is currently on a nationwide tour in which he holds audience Q&As following screenings of his holiday classic (aka the Chevy Chase circuit). As reported by The New York Times, at a recent stop in Rosemont, Illinois, “A Nostalgic Night With Macaulay Culkin” found the former child star admitting that he once considered purchasing the iconic Home Alone house.
“I had half a mind to buy it — just for giggles,” Culkin told the crowd of super-fans. According to The Times, he didn’t want to live there, he wanted to turn it into a “movie fun house” in which one could “sled down the stairs,” just like Kevin McCallister did in that one scene that’s fun for kids and absolutely terrifying for parents.
But Culkin eventually gave up on his plan to create a full-on Home Alone tourist attraction/lawsuit magnate. “I got kids. I’m busy, man,” he explained.
Culkin buying the house and making it into some kind of a theme park-esque destination wouldn’t be entirely without precedent. As we’ve mentioned before, the house from A Christmas Story (another movie about a small child who develops an interest in weaponry during the holidays) is now a museum and a pricey bed and breakfast.
But the Christmas Story house was bought for just $150,000 in 2004, which is a far cry from the $5 million-plus price tag for Home Alone mansion. Culkin might have better luck purchasing one of the properties from Uncle Buck, or perhaps Getting Even With Dad.
