Home Alone 3 “Was Just A Total Mistake”, Says OG Star

An original Home Alone star does not approve of the third movie.

After the success of the franchise's first two films starring Macaulay Culkin and directed by Chris Columbus, the franchise released Home Alone 3. Instead of Culkin's character Kevin McCallister, this sequel revolved around Alex Pruitt, an eight-year-old boy who has to protect his home from criminals working for a terrorist organization. The rest of the cast was also completely different, and Raja Gosnell directed instead of Columbus, although John Hughes did return to write the script and produce after doing so for the prior two installments.

In an interview with Adam Lupis, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York actor Gerry Bamman, who played Uncle Frank, shared that he thought the third film was "a total mistake" and unsuccessfully attempted to "use the same vehicle but replace all the passengers and the driver." He also explained that he believes Hughes worked on the project for the wrong reasons, while acknowledging that the sequel would have been much more expensive to make if the original cast had been brought back. Check out Bamman's comments below:

I totally think that, yes. I don't want to speak ill of John Hughes because he's gone, but I feel that he wanted to make a statement that he was the one who was responsible for the success – not Macaulay. And that was a mistake. Now, I grant you, it would have cost them a lot of money to hire that same cast for Home Alone 3 because by then everybody knew how much money those films were making. But I thought it was just a total mistake to use the same vehicle but replace all the passengers and the driver.

When it comes to Macaulay Culkin not being in Home Alone 3, an important detail that Bamman does not mention is that the young actor had taken a hiatus from acting at the time. Reportedly, early drafts were centered on Kevin as a teenager, but this needed to be reworked due to Culkin having stepped away from acting.

Nevertheless, compared to its predecessors, Home Alone 3 did not perform as well at the box office, nor was it as well-received by audiences. The original Home Alone was a massive box office success, grossing $477 million worldwide after being made on an $18 million budget. Home Alone 2 was also a massive financial hit, making $359 million globally against a budget estimated to be between $20–28 million. As indicated by Bamman, after these successes, it would have cost significantly more to bring the same cast back.

Home Alone 3 had the franchise's highest budget yet at $32 million, but only finished with $79 million at the worldwide box office. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first Home Alone has an 81% audience score and Home Alone 2 has a 62% score. By comparison, Home Alone 3 received a "Rotten" 27%. Critics did not respond well to the third movie either, with many reviews arguing that it was too similar to the original story while lacking the charm that made that one a classic.

These were the franchise's only installments to be released in theaters, but more Home Alone movies were made in later years, with 2002's Home Alone 4 and 2012's Home Alone: The Holiday Heist premiering on television, and 2021's Home Sweet Home Alone debuting on Disney+. On Rotten Tomatoes, their audience scores are even lower than Home Alone 3, with Home Sweet Home Alone at the bottom with 13%.

Another movie could still be on the way, though, as just last month there were reports of Culkin doing a new Home Alone sequel, although nothing has been confirmed yet. Last year, the actor pitched a concept of adult Kevin having to navigate traps set by his own son. If this comes to pass, it could be the franchise's first new theatrical release since Home Alone 3 and the first with Culkin since Home Alone 2.