Basketball courtroom, residence cinema – however no booby traps: Dwelling Alone home on sale for $5.25m | Motion pictures

Movies

The house in Winnetka, Illinois still features the staircase which Macaulay Culkin rode down on a sledge, but the swinging paint cans have since been removed

Tue 28 May 2024 08.40 EDT

Cinema fans – and burglars – alert: the home made famous by 1990 film Home Alone is on the market, with a sale price of $5.25m (£4.1m).

The five bedroom, six bathroom mansion at 671 Lincoln Avenue, Winnetka, Illinois forms the key setting for the bulk of Chris Columbus’s festive hit, as 10-year-old Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) fends off the break-in efforts of villains played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, after his parents inadvertently leave him unattended over the holidays.

The house was previously up for sale in 2012, eventually reaching a price of $1.58m three years later. In 2021, Airbnb listed the property for one-night-only stays for fans of the film.

All exterior scenes were shot on location, but the only interiors used were the main staircase, basement, attic and first floor landing.

All other interiors were duplicated on a sound stage; the tree house in the backyard built specifically for the film was dismantled after filming ended.

Since shooting took place, the living space in the house has doubled, with the owners adding a large conservatory and a state-of-the-art basketball court.

The listing describes the property as “one of the most famous houses in the world”, featuring two living rooms, a large kitchen, a three-car garage and the “unforgettable staircase” which Culkin rode down on a sledge.

It is unclear whether any of the house is still rigged to fend off possible intruders; Kevin defeats his enemies by pummelling them with a variety of unexpected missiles, launched from household appliances.

Last year, the house from Halloween went on the market for $1.8m (£1.4m), while the flat above the bookshop from Notting Hill went on sale in 2022 for £2.375m.

Other movie properties to have changed hands recently include the sprawling mansion from Scarface, which changed hands in 2015 for $12.25m (£9.6m) (a considerable price cut from the originally hoped for $35m (£27.4m)), and the family home in San Francisco featured in Mrs Doubtfire, which sold for $4.15m (£3.3m) in 2016.

Homes featured in horror movies have more of a chequered history on the open market. The home from Nightmare on Elm Street where Freddy Krueger slaughters all of his victims in the opening film sold in 2021 for $2.9m (£2.3m) despite its modest dimensions; visitors of a squeamish disposition might choose to stay in the guest house.

Yet the huge farmhouse from 2013’s The Conjuring appeared to have had its prospects dented rather than raised by its big-screen role, selling in 2021 for just $1.5m, despite coming with 8.5 acres and the considerable efforts by the estate agents to spin its haunted status into a positive.

“The current caretakers have reported countless happenings in the house,” read the listing, “and have turned overnight guest bookings and group events on the property into a steady successful business.”

In 2022, a 28-bedroom, 38-bathroom mansion estate once owned by William Randolph Hearst and actor Marion Davies, and which featured in films including The Godfather and The Bodyguard, sold for $126m (£99m). One of its bedrooms was the one in which Jack Woltz, the movie mogul played by John Marley, awakes to discover his horse’s head beneath the covers.

The property, which was built in 1927, features a two-storey library, lighted tennis courts, and was a destination for Jacqueline and John F Kennedy on their honeymoon. It also acted as Kennedy’s west coast presidential election headquarters.

Last year, Donald Trump denied claims that he had “bullied” his way into a cameo in Home Alone’s 1992 sequel, saying instead that Columbus “begged” him to do it. Pesci also recently recalled “sustain[ing] serious burns to the top of my head” in a scene in which his character’s hat is set alight.