Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
Topics: Christmas, Film and TV, Celebrity
Ellie Kemp
A Home Alone actor revealed he walked away from his iconic role before securing a 500 percent increase in his salary.
Daniel Stern plays Marv Murchins in the comedy - one half of criminal duo the Wet Bandits - alongside Joe Pesci as burgular Harry Lyme.
As we all know, Home Alone stars young Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, who's left behind when his family jet off to Paris for a Christmas vacation.
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While he's left alone, the two robbers attempt to break into the McCallister's multimillion dollar mansion, but are confronted by Kevin's cleverly-orchestrated traps to keep them away.
It's been almost 35 years since Home Alone first burst onto our screens, with its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York dropping just two years later.
And while Stern has surprised fans with his change of career since finishing up the two movies - sculpting and running a ranch - he might never have even played the role we all know and love today.
Can you imagine that!?
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Stern, now 67, revealed he almost didn't take the part in the initial movie, which was released in 1990.
He described backing out of the Home Alone franchise as 'one of the stupidest decisions in my show business life'.
The reason? Filming was increased from six weeks to eight, but Stern was still set to be paid the initial $300,000 (£236,000) for his time.
He was actually replaced, but producers soon called him back.
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Home Alone was a major success; Not only is it a Christmas classic decades on, but it grossed $500 million (£393 million) in theaters worldwide.
It would've been stupid not to follow-up on its success, and when talks of Home Alone 2 rolled around, Stern knew his worth.
This time, he was being offered $600,000 (£472,000) to reprise his role, but was shocked to learn Pesci was earning up to $3 million (£2.36 million).
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Dissatisfied - and rightly so - Stern gave a counteroffer of $1.5 million and two percent of the gross profits of the sequel.
He admitted: “I knew they couldn’t do the movie without me, but I was also insecure, since I almost blew it the first time.
“I didn’t want to be too greedy when I loved the movie and the part so much.”
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Stern eventually secured his $1.5m but the studio compromised on the percentage of profits, halving it to one percent instead of two.
This wasn't anything to be sniffed at though - especially when you take into account Home Alone 2 grossed $359,000,000 (£282,000,000) at the box office.
So his one percent cut could've made him an extra $3.59 million.
In today's money, factoring in that all-important inflation, that totals around $8.07 million.
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What a great reminder of knowing your worth and standing your ground.