Home Alone Star Weighs in on How the McCallisters Got Their Wealth

Home Alone star Catherine O’Hara is weighing in on the question that has been plaguing the minds of fans for decades: how did the McCallister family get rich enough to afford that house? 

The question came up when the New York Times published a report that estimated that, based on the layout of their house and its location in the  Chicago suburbs, the McCallisters had to be in the top 1% of American families, in terms of income. The McCallister parents would’ve had to pull in a combined $305,000 a year in 1990 – or $665,000 a year today, based on 2022 inflation rates. In fact, Zillow currently lists the home used in Home Alone as having an off-market value of $2.34 million. 

“I thought the house was pretty amazing,” O’Hara told PEOPLE. “Oh Lord, yeah. I was aware of how beautiful it was, but no, 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.”

Indeed, it’s never really stated in either Home Alone or Home Alone 2 what the McCallister parents do for a living. However, Peter was McCallister (John Heard) wealthy enough to not only afford that kind of home but also take his family and even in-laws on an expensive trip to Paris over the holidays. It isn’t so much that display of wealth that begins to look odd when Home Alone fans get older – it’s really the cavalier nature of how the McCallistes spend money – even dropping upwards of $100 on pizza while barely treating it like an expense. Even more miraculous is how Home Alone manages to present that range of upper-middle-class to full-flown wealth without ever having it conflict with the idea of Kevin’s resourcefulness and/or resolve when taking on the Wet Bandits (Harry and Marv). Little rich was toughter than he looked, and we bought that it was possible. 

In a final joke, Catherine O’Hara posited a reason that Kevin may have had more survivalist instinct than we would’ve guessed: cult life. 

“I guess Peter had his own religion,” O’Hara said of the late John Heard. “Church of the McCallisters.”