Macaulay Culkin reveals surprising reason he thinks Home Alone 2 is better than Home Alone

Macaulay Culkin has opened up about which film in the iconic Home Alone franchise is his favorite, and the reason is pretty funny.

Home Alone has stood the test of time and is regarded by many as one of the best festive flicks out there, with some households even watching the film multiple times in the build-up to Christmas Day.

The first 1990 movie sees troubled kid Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) get accidentally abandoned by his family as they head off for a Christmas vacation.

Left home alone over the festive period, Kevin has to fend for himself, with the scenes all fans love involving Kevin wreaking havoc on Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), aka the Wet Bandits, through a series of stunts that leave the criminals sustaining multiple serious injuries.

Home Alone 2 followed a few years later, which included a lot of similar antics, but this time in New York.

Macaulay Culkin has revealed his favorite Home Alone film(20th Century Fox)

Culkin appeared on YouTube's Hot Ones recently, and Home Alone, of course, came up in conversation with the host asking the actor which movie in the franchise he prefers.

Almost immediately, Culkin replied: “Home Alone 2."

The reason why? Money.

Culkin said: "I got paid more. I think I own five percent of the net. And also 15 perfect of the merchandising. So, if you buy a Talkboy I’m like yeah, I’ll take 15 percent of that. Thank you very much. By the way, buy a Talkboy this Christmas.”

Home Alone opened with $17,081,997 at the box office, with Home Alone 2 nearly doubling that with a staggering $31,126,882, according to Box Office Mojo.

Catherine O'Hara was, of course, a key part of Home Alone's success too, with the Beetlejuice actor joining Culkin in Los Angeles when he got his star in 2023.

The pair reunited in 2023 (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

“Home Alone was, is and always will be a global sensation, the reason it is that, the reason families all over the world can’t let a year go by without watching and loving Home Alone together, is because of Macaulay Culkin,” O'Hara said at the time.

“Yes, he had an excellent script and a wonderful director but it is Macaulay’s perfect performance as Kevin McCallister that gave us that little everyboy on an extraordinary adventure."

She continued: “I know you worked really hard, but you made acting look like the most natural thing in the world to do.

“It really was as if we ambushed the home of this real little boy named Kevin to make a movie and he just went along with it for the fun of it.”