There are a lot of homes in movies that are iconic, and during the holidays there’s none more iconic than the beautiful, Chicago-area home that Kevin McCallister and his family lived in in Home Alone — and that Kevin faced off against hoe invaders Harry and Marv in. The home is a massive one and also very expensive; it recently sold for around $5 million and, before that, for $1.5 million back in 2012. Even back in 1990 when Home Alone was released, the stately home was by no means cheap and over the years has seen fans ponder how exactly the McCallisters got their wealth to be able to afford the house as well as their lavish Christmas vacation to Paris among other details. Now, the film’s director Chris Columbus is weighing in and it turns out that it comes down to work. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus offered some insight to what Kate and Peter McCallister did for a living — and it’s not as dramatic as you might expect.
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According to Columbus, he and the film’s writer John Hughes actually discussed what the McCallister’s did for a living in order to afford their gorgeous home — and clues were in the movie as well.
“Back then, John and I had a conversation about it, and we decided on what the jobs were,” Columbus said, going on to reveal that Kate “was a very successful fashion designer.”
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Kate being a fashion designer is something that the movie visually suggested, at least at one point. In the film, viewers glimpse mannequins in the basement of the house and those mannequins are a nod to Kate’s job. Kate being a fashion designer is also something that was touched on in the novelization of the movie, written by Todd Strasser. The book specifically reveals that Kate was indeed a designer, but is more generic about Peter, simply saying he was a businessman.
As for Peter, Columbus wasn’t quite as sure though he thought it might be a nod to Hughes’ real-life experience working in advertising.
“The father could have, based on John Hughes own experience, worked in advertising, but I don’t remember what the father did,” he said before ruling out one thing fans have held as a theory for a long time.
“Not organized crime — even though there was, at that time, a lot of organized crime in Chicago,” he said.
While Columbus’ comments largely settle the source of the McCallister’s wealth, it probably won’t stop fans from having their theories and even the film’s stars have their own ideas. Catherine O’Hara, who played Kate McCallister, has previously commented that maybe Kate or Peter had actually inherited their money.
“I thought the house was pretty amazing,’ O’Hara said previously. “Oh Lord, yeah. I was aware of how beautiful it was, but now, I never thought of their money That’s not where my head was when I was doing [the movie]. Of course, they all went to Paris, didn’t they? People have these theories. Where’d they get their money? Maybe he inherited it… they inherited it.”
She even joked that maybe Peter was in charge of a cult — though she was just joking about that.
“I guess Peter had his own religion,” she said. “Church of the McCallisters.”
