Why was Home Alone (1990) so popular?

[buritobr]

Home Alone (1990) had a huge audience. Many million people watched this movie in the theaters, many million people watched this movie at TV. Everyone who is more than 30 remember this movie.
Home Alone was not a bad movie. However, it was not a very special movie. The production was cheap. Almost all the story took place inside a house. No special effects, no beautiful images. No spetacular story.

[dead0man]

The burglars were good actors that are great at making the audience want to see them get hurt.  The kid was cute, in a weird looking way.  Audiences like to see painful things happen to bad people, in a funny way.

I never really liked the movie, but it wasn't aimed at me (I was 17 at the time).

[Mr. Smith]

Because it was a feel-good, in suburban Chicago, John Hughes production, and if his other productions are remembered, than why not this one?

Especially given the earnest effort put in by everyone on it, between the director, between Maculay Culkin who really gave it his all, between Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the burglars who were such bumbling psychos, and even between the adults and other kids who probably didn't need to give that much of a crap. And also John Williams churned out an excellent score worth listening to in its own right around Christmas.

And the result is a simple and charming little moral that still holds up, oh and the ridiculous but hilarious traps.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

It was two movies in one.  You had the Hallmark stuff and the wacky slapstick.   So it had wide appeal.  Plus it's about a kid at Christmas.

[Mr. Smith]

It was two movies in one.  You had the Hallmark stuff and the wacky slapstick.   So it had wide appeal.  Plus it's about a kid at Christmas.

And you literally said what I said in a paragraph in four sentences, kudos.

[OSR stands with Israel]

My favorite was home alone 3

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, it's not my kind of movie at all but MormDem is right.

[DemPGH]

See, I wish they still made movies like that. I love it. Plus, Joe Pesci was coming off his Goodfellas fame and was hilarious with Daniel Stern. Too bad he couldn't swear because it was PG. I liked Home Alone 2 as well, but I did not see 3. They walk into every single trap that  kid sets. It's great.

The John Hughes holiday comedies are an absolute must around here - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, and Home Alone.

[DavidB.]

Because these films were just perfect. I had been watching them for years every Xmas, together with some of my family, until I left my parents' house.

[OSR stands with Israel]

See, I wish they still made movies like that. I love it. Plus, Joe Pesci was coming off his Goodfellas fame and was hilarious with Daniel Stern. Too bad he couldn't swear because it was PG. I liked Home Alone 2 as well, but I did not see 3. They walk into every single trap that  kid sets. It's great.

The John Hughes holiday comedies are an absolute must around here - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, and Home Alone.

Home Alone 3 makes me laugh non stop for like an hour

[Ban my account ffs!]

Man all those movies are great.. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles takes it for me though... "oooh noooo...."  "what."  "you're f**ked!"

or

"THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS!!!"

Uncle Buck is great too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H-cWXr-n5I

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I preferred Home Alone 2, especially the part where he realizes he is in New York and his parents are in Florida, on to where he is on the observation deck looking out at the city. 

Of course now it no longer has the sense of awesomeness but instead one of sadness because of where the observation deck was located.

[The Arizonan]

The most emotional scene was when old man Marley was reunited with his estranged son. These days it's hard for me to care about whether Kevin's mother comes home to Kevin because everyone knows that sooner or later, she does.

[DemPGH]

Uncle Buck is great too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H-cWXr-n5I

Damn, I miss John Candy. Lots of memorable scenes in that, but Candy in that coat, hat, and cigar strolling through the school with "Wild Thing" playing and then telling off the principal takes it!

[politicallefty]

I preferred Home Alone 2, especially the part where he realizes he is in New York and his parents are in Florida, on to where he is on the observation deck looking out at the city. 

Of course now it no longer has the sense of awesomeness but instead one of sadness because of where the observation deck was located.

I also liked Home Alone 2, quite a bit more than the first. I agree with you entirely. I saw the movie so many times growing up in the '90s. I was five when it came out and I'm pretty sure I saw it in the theatre. We also had the tape on VHS and I used to watch it all the time when I was young. There's an overlapping dub, but this is the only video I found of that whole scene. I always loved that part of the movie, but it definitely does feel different compared to watching it young in the '90s.

[buritobr]

I have just watched Ridley Scott's "Lost in Mars". It looks like Home Alone. But in Mars, not in Chicago.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Aside, that child abduction was heavy during that time, it reminds people that there is that one Christmas gift or person we left off our Christmas list. And Hallmark moment, that the family is just in time for Holidays, and its gift.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Everyone who is more than 30 remember this movie.

Well, it's amusing because, yeah.

And what is also amusing is that I also wondered about that. ^^

Haven't found any satisfying answer so far.

But, not sure why, seems there was a trend then, some stuffs like Beethoven or Look who's talking were the same kind of movies, with apparently the same kind of audience, at least here, belonging to the same epoch, early 1990s, and you don't have movies of that shade since the early 2000s, do you? And maybe even not a lot before, I can't think of something at least.

Some stuffs where kids in uncommon situations are the heroes and always look smarter than adults, with big gags, but always working on the 'family audience'.

And all of them, had at least a 2 and a 3.

Maybe Home alone had the Christmas stuff moreover, which might have still more impact.

But I'd say the taboo thing of forgetting the kid would make a good part of the job.