Exactly How Rich Were the McCallister’s In ‘Home Alone’?

In 1990, Kevin McCallister showed viewers exactly can happen when an eight-year-old is left home alone — and it’s way more exciting than we would have thought. Home Alone starred Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, a young boy whose parents accidentally leave him by himself during the holidays. Even though he is only eight, Kevin manages to take care of the house, go grocery shopping, and even take down two terrible criminals, the Wet Bandits.

In the movie, the bad guys — Harry and Marv — target Kevin’s family’s house because it is the nicest one on the block. Kevin’s parents have a gorgeous house that is big enough to handle their five children and nearly a dozen extra guests. His parents — Peter and Kate — can also afford to take the family to Paris one year and Florida the next (Home Alone 2).

While Harry and Marv are scoping out the home, Harry calls the house “the silver tuna”, and says that it is filled with expensive items like VCRs, home stereo systems, and expensive jewelry. Remember, Harry had been in the house when he posed as a cop to find out which families were going out of town for the holidays.

Also, in the film, Kevin says that his address is 671 Lincoln Boulevard. The home used for the movie was actually located at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, Illinois. That is one of the wealthiest streets in the Chicago suburb.

However, we never find out exactly what it is his parents do for work. The subject of a job never even comes up. Which really begs the question — how rich are the McCallisters?

The New York Times asked some well-respected economists, as well as some people who worked on the film, just how much money the McCallisters had at their disposal.

In 1990, the house was affordable only for the top 1 percent of Chicago household incomes, and that would still be the case today, according to economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Working with the assumption that the McCallisters did not spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the economists also determined the home would have been affordable to a household with an income of $305,000 in 1990 (about $665,000 in 2022).

In the middle of 2022, a similar house would cost about $2.4 million, based on the Zillow estimate for the “Home Alone” house. A home of that value would be affordable to a household with income of $730,000, which would be in the top 1 percent of Chicago-area households, the economists said.

As we said above, viewers never learn what it is Kate and Peter do for work. However, some have speculated that Kate may be a fashion designer, which is why there are several mannequins in the house.

Todd Strasser — the author who turned the movie and its sequel into books — said that he decided to make Kate a fashion designer, because why else would they have multiple mannequins? He also said that it was a “safe bet” that Peter was a businessman, so that’s what he made him. However, he did not make them uber-wealthy because of Kate’s comment that her Rolex watch might be fake.

And while the McCallister’s might be wealthy enough to afford a nice house, they are only able to fly to Paris because of Peter’s brother. In Home Alone, Peter mentions that his brother Rob is the one who paid for the flights. Rob also has a home in Paris that has a view of the Eiffel Tower. In the second film, it is also revealed that Rob also owns a townhome in New York City that is being completely gutted and renovated.

How rich do you think the McCallister’s are? What kind of businessman do you think Peter is?

This post is originally appeared on Disney Dining.