How Home Alone Director Chris Columbus Really Feels About The Sequels

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Chris Columbus directed one of the all-time holiday classics with 1990's "Home Alone." Fans of 1992's "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" would argue he has two to his name. The movies also made a superstar out of Macaulay Culkin, who played the young Kevin McCallister in both movies, but the franchise soldiered on without Columbus or Culkin with a series of sequels over the years. So, how does the director feel about those movies, exactly?

Columbus and Culkin recently united for a 35th anniversary screening of "Home Alone" at the Academy Museum. During a Q&A, the filmmaker was asked about the sequels (via The Hollywood Reporter), ranging from 1997's "Home Alone 3" to 2021's direct-to-Disney+ release "Home Sweet Home Alone." He didn't mince words. Here's what he had to say about it:

"It's been revisited with really bad sequels. Sorry to insult anybody, but they've completely f***ed it up. It started with 'Home Alone 3' and then it just went downhill from there; 'Home Alone 3' is sort of the best of the bunch of the bad movies."

"Also, they didn't have us," Culkin quipped. Both were content to move on to other things, with Culkin largely stepping away from Hollywood for a time, though he has been acting more as of late. He even reprised his role as Kevin from "Home Alone" in a Google commercial in 2018.

For what it's worth, this isn't the first time Columbus said unkind things about the franchise's later installments. In a November 2020 interview, he called the Disney+ reboot, eventually titled "Home Sweet Home Alone," a "waste of time." Columbus also pointed out that nobody had gotten in touch with him about it ahead of development, which might have added to his consternation.

The "Home Alone" sequels aren't well regarded by critics, in general. None of them have managed to break through in the way that the original movies have. The first two are annual holiday staples, in addition to being massive box office hits. There's something about seeing Kevin outwit the so-called Wet Bandits, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, that resonates.

Columbus also added during the Q&A that he's "heard about 600 different ideas" for continuations. Culkin recently pitched his own take on a third "Home Alone" focused on Kevin. Would Columbus get back in the saddle for another entry? The director had, at one point, conceived of one that would have brought back the Wet Bandits seeking vengeance on Kevin after they got out of jail. As Columbus explained:

"They're bitter, they're angry, and they want revenge. And who do they want revenge on? Macaulay. And at that point, I thought Macaulay could have a kid, sort of Kevin's age, and it would be his own kid dealing with these two guys ... I don't think Joe Pesci would be interested. I haven't seen Dan Stern since 1992, I don't know if he would be interested. The problem is when you're doing a film like this, a lot of it is really based on cast; part of it is based on the cast at that age, at that particular time, and I don't think you can duplicate that."

It sounds like Columbus feels it's best left alone at this point. For now, he's turning his attention towards "Gremlins 3." Maybe Culkin can get his idea going with a different director. Or maybe it really is best to let it be.

You can grab the "Home Alone 2-Movie Collection" on Blu-ray from Amazon.