The first film in the Home Alone franchise , the film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year old boy who defends his Chicago home from a home invasion by a pair of robbers after his family accidentally leave him behind on their Christmas vacation to Paris.
Hughes conceived Home Alone while on vacation, with Warner Bros. However, Warner Bros. Columbus and Culkin were hired soon afterwards. Filming took place between February and May on location across Illinois. Home Alone had a sneak preview across 1, theaters on November 10, , and was theatrically released in the United States on November While the film's reception was initially mixed, in later years reception has been generally positive, with praise for its cast, humor, and music.
It made Culkin a child star, and was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades. Home Alone has since been considered one of the best Christmas films. In , Home Alone was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The McCallister family prepares to spend Christmas in Paris, gathering at Kate and Peter's home in a Chicago suburb on the night before their departure.
Kate and Peter's youngest son Kevin is ridiculed by his siblings and cousins due to his immaturity. Kevin inadvertently ruins the family dinner after a scuffle with his oldest brother Buzz, resulting in Kate sending him up to the attic. Frustrated with Kate for allowing the rest of the family to pick on him, Kevin wishes that his family would disappear. During the night, heavy winds create a power outage, disabling the alarm clocks and causing the family to oversleep.
