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Topics: US Food, TV and Film, Celebrity
Ben Williams
Topics: US Food, TV and Film, Celebrity
Both Home Alone and Home Alone 2 are Christmas movie classics that are essential viewing every festive season, but Kevin McCallister’s famous room service haul has always got more of us thinking about how much he spends on his dad’s credit card as time goes on.
Although Kevin only spent money on mostly essentials when he was eight years old in the original Home Alone film in 1990 (milk, eggs, fabric softener, Wonder Bread, microwave dinners to 'give a whirl', and a whole cheese pizza just for him), the sequel — 1992’s Lost in New York — saw him kick things up a notch at the Plaza Hotel.
Even many dessert-loving kids back in those days might have thought Mr McCallister’s sweet tooth might have taken his room service spread too far, one could argue spending ‘$967 on room service!!!’ was justified since he ended up getting separated from his family over Christmas for the second time.
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However, it’s easy to forget that just under $1,000 was A LOT of money in the early 90s, and some experts have brought a modern perspective by figuring out how much Kevin’s room service feast would’ve cost in today’s times.
Back in 2023, the team at NoDepositDaily (as reported by Secret NYC), made use of an inflation calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics to figure out how much the cost of what Kevin ordered had gone up with inflation over those 21 years.
It turns out that, based on Kevin’s original bill at $967.43 in Home Alone ($728 plus tax & gratuity), Mr McCallister would now owe $2,239.64, according to estimations via US Inflation Calculator - a whopping 131.5% increase.
Here’s exactly what Kevin bought for over $2,000 by New York hotel room service standards: a pastry cart, six custard flans, two chocolate cakes, eight strawberry tarts, 36 chocolate-covered strawberries, and six portions of chocolate mousse topped with M&Ms, chocolate sprinkles, cherries, nuts, marshmallows, caramel syrup, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, whipped cream and bananas.
Of course, some social media users weighed in on whether Kevin indeed went too far.
On a post citing a similar post-inflation figure for Kevin’s room service bill, one user on X (formerly Twitter) said: “While Mr McCallister has the right to be livid about that but he brought [it] on himself for his irresponsibility with not watching Kevin at the airport and leaving his stuff with him."
Another added: “Clearly Mr. McCallister can afford it since he and his entire family go to expensive vacations every year it seems, but yeah Kevin did spend a fortune in 1992 money."