20 facts you might not know about 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'

“Home Alone” was written by the legendary John Hughes, who then gave the project to Chris Columbus to direct as a favor after Columbus left “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” due to the presence of Chevy Chase. Since it was such a success, Hughes was back to write the sequel and Columbus returned as the director.

Hughes was already a success off the strength of ‘80s films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club.” “Home Alone” kept his success in Hollywood going. Early in 1991, Hughes signed a six-movie deal with 20th Century Fox off the strength of “Home Alone.” Naturally, a sequel was part of that deal.

The McCallisters are a large family, but they managed to get basically everybody back for the sequel. Of course, they had to make sure the likes of John Heard and Catherine O’Hara were back, but almost every child actor returned as well. In fact, only one member of the McCallister clan, Kevin’s older sister Linnie, was played by a different actor.

A sequel was not going to happen without Culkin returning as Kevin. “Home Alone” had made him a star, and a pay increase was in order. For the first film, Culkin received $110,000. For the sequel, he got $4.5 million-plus five percent of the film’s gross.

It may be a small role, and you may not recognize her, but the actress who plays the Pigeon Lady has quite the career. Brenda Fricker was named the 26th greatest Irish actor ever by “The Irish Times” in 2020, and she also won Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for “My Left Foot.”

You likely recognize Tim Curry, Rob Schneider, and Dana Ivey as the people working at the Plaza Hotel. In the credits, they are only listed as “Concierge,” “Bellman,” and “Desk Clerk” respectively. However, within the movie, you can find out their names are Mr. Hector, Cedric, and Hester Stone.

“Celebrity Ding-Dang-Dong” is not a real show, but the cast of that fake game show features some real game show personalities. Bob Eubanks plays the host, and he also hosted shows like “The Newlywed Game.” The celebrities are Rip Taylor, Jaye P. Morgan, and Jimmie Walker, all people who showed up on game shows in the ‘70s and ‘80s. In fact, Morgan was a regular on “The Gong Show.”

No, we aren’t talking about Ally Sheedy as the Ticket Agent. Yes, Donald Trump is on “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” At the time, he was mostly known as a famous New Yorker who loved to pop up in pop culture whenever he could. He also owned the Plaza Hotel, where Columbus planned to shoot. Trump allowed them to shoot in the lobby in exchange for a fee and a cameo. Columbus has said that Trump basically “bullied” his way into the movie.

Columbus, having gotten his scenes shot, originally had hoped to cut Trump’s cameo from the movie. Then, during a test screening, audiences cheered when he showed up, which saved his appearance. However, someday maybe that will change. There was a (somewhat jokey) petition asking for Trump to be digitally replaced by current-day Culkin in the film. It got a little traction when Culkin himself endorsed the petition.

A lot of the film is shot in New York, naturally, but Hughes also loved to shoot movies in Winnetka, a suburb of Chicago. It’s where the McCallister house was, but it’s also the city where Hughes shot films like “Ferris Bueller,” “Sixteen Candles, “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” and more.

When you make a Christmas movie, you tend to want some snow. The whole “winter wonderland” look is key to Christmas films. As such, for the first they had spent a ton of money on fake snow they could use in New York. Then, before they filmed using any of it, a blizzard hit the city. That meant plenty of real snow, and basically no need for fake snow.

In order for the Sticky Bandits to be attacked by all those pigeons, Pesci and Stern had to put up with some unpleasantness. Real pigeons were used for that scene. The actors were covered in birdseed and roughly 300 birds were let loose. Stern has said that one bird flew into his mouth.

Kevin apparently has a sweet tooth. While we’re sure that room service at the Plaza is pricey, it’s impressive how he got to $967 worth. That’s especially since it all came from dessert. Among the items listed are two chocolate cakes, six custard flans, 36 chocolate-covered strawberries, and an entire pastry cart.

As with basically every movie, “Home Alone 2” went through a few drafts and alterations. In one of the production drafts, there is a scene at the end of the movie where a police officer talks to the Pigeon Lady. They call her “Annie” and invite her to come down to the station for hot chocolate. Eventually, that scene was cut, and thus the real name of the Pigeon Lady remained unknown.

Duncan’s Toy Chest is not a real store, but it has a real-life inspiration. It’s based on the massive F.A.O. Schwarz toy store in Manhattan. You may know it as the toy store that Ton Hanks goes to in “Big.” While it wasn’t a real store, all of the kids in the toy store scene shot there were allowed to keep one toy as a memento.

In 1992, two different soundtracks were released. One consisted of John Williams’ score, while the other contained the Christmas music included in “Home Alone 2.” Then, that second soundtrack was discontinued and replaced with “Home Alone Christmas,” which came out in 1997 with a tweaked track listing. That’s not all. In 2002, a “Deluxe Edition” of the soundtrack was released for the 10-year anniversary. The two-disc release features 100 minutes of Williams’ score and other music cues, including some that weren’t included in the actual movie.

To capitalize on the popularity of the first movie and the excitement for the second, a “Home Alone 2” video game was released. It came out at an interesting time when games were still being released for Nintendo AND Super Nintendo. They also released it for Game Boy and Sega Genesis. Kevin uses a dart gun and powers up with pizza and candy canes. Unsurprisingly, it was considered a bad game and a cheap money grab. There was also a board game based on “Mouse Trap.”

Every kid in 1992 was enthused by the Talkboy when they see Kevin with it in the movie. However, this was not a pre-existing toy. Hughes had dreamed it up for the purposes of the movie and then Tiger Electronics made it for him. They also released it as a tie-in to the movie, and many of those kids clamoring for a Talkboy were able to actually get it.

“Home Alone 2” opened to a box office of $31.1 million, which was a new November record. It also made $100 million in 24 days, compared to 33 days for the original “Home Alone.” However, the sequel did not have the legs of the original. “Lost in New York” did make a hearty $359 million worldwide, but “Home Alone” made $476 million.

Originally, they had plans to make “Home Alone 2” and “Home Alone 3” at the same time. That didn’t happen, though, and that changed things. When the idea of a third movie was first bandied about, the thought was to have a teenage Kevin played by Culkin. By then, though, Culkin had retired from acting. Thus, “Home Alone 3” became a movie about an eight-year-old named Alex. The villains are international spies. It didn’t really pan out.