Imagine heading in to make a movie and having things nearly fall apart right at the very beginning. There are plenty of films that never get made and ones that have loads of changes made, but it would be incredibly bizarre to hear of an MCU, DC, or Star Wars movie pull the plug right at the start of production.

During the 90s, Home Alone came along and became a monumental success. Not only that, but the film is widely regarded as a legitimate classic. Despite this, there was once a point in time when this project was getting the plug pulled on it, which would have robbed the world of a great movie.

Let’s look back and see how Home Alone almost didn’t happen!

The Film Was Going Over Budget

Home Alone
via 20th Century Fox

To get the full picture here, we need to head back to the very beginning when the idea of making Home Alone was coming together. For this project, the studio was not too interested in spending a whole lot of money. So, John Hughes, the film’s writer, told Warner Bros. that they could make the movie for $10 million.

Even back then, $10 million was a modest budget for a movie, and this wound up putting the production team in a bind. A budget should be adhered to as much as possible, but the truth is that making this work is not always easy. It also means that some tough decision need to be made.

According to the New Zealand Herald, actor Daniel Stern, who played Marv in the film, was unable to get a raise for an additional two weeks of work, which caused him to quit. He would eventually come back, but the itty bitty budget that the studio gave the team to work with was doing them no favors in the long run.

Over time, even though the film was in the early stages of production, costs would reach above $14 million, meaning that the studio was going to feel some pressure about funding this little movie. John Hughes was confident that going over budget would be okay, but as it turns out, the studio was not too happy with what was going on.

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The Studio Pulls The Plug

Home Alone
Via mentalfloss.com

Now $4 million is nothing in the world of film, especially when talking about a major studio like Warners Bros. However, this minimal amount of money wound up being a point of contention for the studio and the production team, and eventually, production was ordered to shut down.

Just like that, it seemed like all hope was lost for every person working on that film. It wasn’t just the actors that were affected. Every person from the director to the grips all felt the disappointment of this movie being canned in the blink of an eye.

In a Netflix documentary about the film, executive producer Scott Rosenfelt would say, “The call came from Warner Bros to tell us to stop working.”

In a situation like this, a team would have to pack things up and head on home knowing that they weren’t able to get their vision off the ground and onto the big screen. As we will soon see, there would be some trickery involved to make a final push to save this film from never seeing the light of day.

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Fox Steps In And Saves The Day

Home Alone
Via welovebudapest.com

Executive producer Scott Rosenfelt, when speaking to Netflix, revealed an interesting tactic that John Hughes used to make sure that Home Alone was made.

Rosenfelt would say, “Legally another studio isn't meant to see a piece of material until it's legally in turnaround, and that didn't exactly happen. Basically a screenplay was left somewhere so someone could pick it up. It was clandestinely delivered."

Because of this, Fox stepped in and told the crew to keep things rolling. There was basically no stop in production thanks to Hughes and his decision to roll with Fox. Just like that, jobs were saved and production was moving along full steam ahead.

Eventually, Home Alone would go on to make $285 million worldwide, making it a huge financial success. Over time, it spawned an entire franchise of films and has since been heralded as a true Christmas classic. It’s amazing to see the amount of success that this film and its immediate sequel would have, especially when looking at the fact that it was practically canned during production.

Related: The Truth About Donald Trump’s Appearance In ‘Home Alone’

Home Alone is a holiday classic that has been able to stand the test of time all thanks to John Hughes and some clever trickery.

Next: 5 Overrated Christmas Movies (& 5 Underrated Ones)