Here's How Many Days The Home Alone Script Was Written In, And I've Waited Longer For Parcels

Is it really Christmas without a rewatch (or, in my case, a re-re-re-re-rewatch) of the 1990 classic Home Alone?

The film, which is the second-highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time (bested only by the 2018 animated adaptation of The Grinch) is a smash hit across the globe ― though its titles across the world vary more than you might think. 

But just like that other festive juggernaut, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You (which was written in 15 minutes), it seems the script for the legendary film took but a jiffy to write. 

Writing for Chicago magazine in 2015, filmmaker and producer John Hughes’ son shared that the whole script was penned in just over a week. 

“On August 8, 1989, my father, John Hughes, jotted down in a notebook a movie idea, born of traveller’s anxiety, that occurred to him during the bustle of departing for our first family trip to Europe, and set it aside,” he said.

“Two weeks later, after returning home, he revisited the premise: What if one of the kids had been accidentally left behind?” 

The resulting script took him just nine days to write, John Hughs’ son said (no, it’s fine, I don’t feel embarrassed by my article output at all after reading that). 

The last 44 pages were done in an “eight-hour dash,” the article reads.

And apparently the filmmaker wasn’t pleased with his progress. 

His son said: “Before finishing, he’d expressed concerns in the marginalia of his journal that he was working too slowly.” 

Speaking to Time magazine in 1990, John seemed to confirm his son’s story.

“I was going away on vacation,’’ he says, ’’and making a list of everything I didn’t want to forget. I thought, ‘Well, I’d better not forget my kids.’ Then I thought, ‘What if I left my 10-year-old son at home? What would he do?’” 

And apparently, the eight pages of notes that inspired the movie which would go on to hold the record for the highest single-territory total for a live-action comedy for 27 years were written in a break from holiday packing. 

I wish my pre-airport procrastinating was that profitable...