Macaulay Culkin has good reason to think Home Alone 2 is better than the original

Macaulay Culkin has revealed that he has a favourite Home Alone film.

The former child star shot to fame after starring in the first two movies from the Nineties franchise: Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

Fans often debate over which is the superior movie. In the original, directed by Chris Columbus, Culkin’s character Kevin McCallister is accidentally left behind by his family when they go away for the Christmas holidays.

In the second film, set one year after the events of the first, Kevin loses his family at the airport as they rush to catch their flight to Florida, accidentally boarding a plane to New York City instead.

Appearing on the show Hot Ones, in which celebrities answer questions from host Sean Evens while eating spicy chicken wings, Culkin was asked what makes the second film better than the first.

“I got paid more,” Culkin, now 44, responded.

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone 2 (YouTube/20th Century Fox)

He continued: “I think I own five per cent of the net [gross] and also 15 per cent of the merchandising,” he continued.

“So if you buy a Talkboy, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll take 15 per cent of that, thank you very much!”

Culkin jokingly encouraged viewers to buy a Talkboy – the handheld voice recorder that was invented and designed especially for Home Alone – for Christmas.

During the show, Evans asked Culkin if he’d asked his younger brother, Succession star Kieran Culkin, for any advice before taking part.

Macaulay Culkin on ‘Hot Ones’ (YouTube/First We Feast)

Kieran – who had a supporting role in the first two Home Alone films as Kevin’s younger cousin, Fuller – successfully made it through to the spiciest wing in the challenge back in 2023, despite calling the idea of the challenge “super scary”.

“No, I actually did not, because I kind of wanted to fly a little bit blind,” Macaulay responded. “I’m proud to hear that he took it all the way to the end.”

He quipped: “I’m generally proud of him, because between me and him we have exactly one Oscar.”

Macaulay’s younger brother Kieran won an Oscar for his performance in ‘A Real Pain’

Kieran won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s ceremony, having dominated awards season thanks to his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s film, A Real Pain.

After starring in the Home Alone films, Macaulay established himself as one of the most successful child actors of the Nineties, but temporarily retired from acting after starring in the 1994 film Richie Rich.

He returned to screens in 2003 with a role in the biographical film Party Monster, and has since appeared in a number of projects including the 10th season of American Horror Story.

In 2019, he appeared in the comedy-drama film Changeland, where he met Brenda Song, now his fiancee. The couple welcomed their second child in 2022.

They will be reunited in animated form in Zootopia 2, which Culkin said they had just wrapped filming on. The film also stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Shakira and Quinta Brunson in voice roles.