It is also known what Kevin's parents worked for.
The American edition of The New York Times has calculated the fortune of the McCallister family from the film “Home Alone”.
As stated on the website, to find the answer, the publication turned to economists and people associated with the cult tape.
At the beginning of the comedy, one of the robbers, Harry, tells the “wet bandit” Marv that the McCallister house is their target in a wealthy area. And this house is the best hint of how much money the family has. It is an actual home located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. This is one of the most expensive areas in the USA.
In 1990, the building was affordable to just 1% of American households, say economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Working with an assumption, the McCallisters' annual income would be $305,000 in 1990 (about $665,000 in 2022). In mid-2022, a similar home was worth about $2.4 million. A family with an income of $730 thousand a year could afford it.
What did Kevin's parents do?
The film never reveals the profession of the spouses. However, on the Internet, where this question regularly appears, some people have suggested that Kate McCallister is a fashion designer, since there are several mannequins in the house, which are later shown in one of Kevin's attempts to fool the burglars into thinking that he was not actually home.
American writer Todd Strasser, who wrote books based on the film Home Alone, really made Kevin's mother a fashion designer. Meanwhile, Kevin's dad was a businessman “because it was the easiest option.”
The family had other signs of significant but not astronomical wealth: they wear nice clothes and hire several vans to take them to the airport, but when Kate tries to bribe an elderly couple into giving up tickets to Paris so she can return home, she offers jewelry and money, but hints that her Rolex may be a fake.
Uncle Rob paid for the flights
An interesting tidbit about the family's wealth is their Christmas trip to Paris. Flying 15 people to the French capital is expensive, especially with four adults flying first class, but Kevin's parents aren't paying for plane tickets. At the beginning of the film, Kate McCallister tells the policeman who Harry really is in disguise that her husband's brother paid for the flights.
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This brother is Uncle Rob. He is a minor figure in the first film, but the few mentions of him suggest that he is rich. He pays for the tickets, has an apartment in Paris that overlooks the Eiffel Tower and can somehow accommodate 15 members of his family.
The third brother, Uncle Frank, lives in Ohio and travels with his family from Illinois to Paris. We don't know anything about his income, but we know that he is greedy. At his brother's house in Illinois, he doesn't pay the $122.50 pizza bill. On the plane, while dining in first class, he tells his wife to put a crystal salt and pepper shaker in her purse.
The film is not about money
Eve Cowley, the set designer for Home Alone, was responsible for decor such as the furniture and wallpaper inside the McCallister home, which was filmed on a set built at a local high school. She said in an email that the home was not furnished with expensive furniture but was deliberately “stately and upscale.”
According to Cowley, during filming of the film, navy blue and dusty pink were popular colors in interior design. But she was inspired by Norman Rockwell paintings and vintage Christmas cards to use rich reds, greens and golds in the family home.
Cawley also offered some advice for people looking for answers about household income.
“I think fans who argue about their parents' income or the cost of their house should just enjoy the movie,” she said. “After all, this heartfelt and comic film was created as entertainment for the audience, to lift the spirits before the holidays.”
Let us remind you that it became known how much money Kevin from Home Alone would spend in the supermarket in 2023. In 1990, he paid $19.83 for groceries.
