Macaulay Culkin earned extra $18,000,000 after inserting special clause in to his Home Alone contract

Macauley Culkin became an instant movie icon at just 10-years-old, when he starred in Home Alone and its sequel, Home Alone: Lost in New York.

Culkin nailed the role of loveable Kevin McAllister, the cheeky eight-year-old who's left behind when his family vacation to Paris for Christmas.

Defending his rich family's Chicago mansion, he fights off useless criminal duo the Wet Bandits Marv and Harry, played by Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci.

Home Alone was a major success, racking up $476.7 million at the box office. Today, that would be worth around $1.15 billion, with inflation factored in.

Rewatching the iconic movie series this time of year is tradition for so many of us, and one cast member has given us an early Christmas present by releasing a memoir detailing his time on the Home Alone set.

In the book, aptly titled Home and Alone, Daniel Stern told of how he initially walked away from the role of Marv.

I just can't imagine any other two actors playing the Wet Bandits!

The reason though, in my opinion, was fair enough: he was being paid way less than his co-stars for Home Alone 2.

Daniel Stern is best known for playing Marv in Home Alone (20th Century Studios)

Stern was able to negotiate a better contract and ended up making quite a bit more from the movies than he would've initially.

He also revealed how much Culkin earned from starring in the movies.

According to Stern's book, Culkin was paid $110,000 (£86,500) for the original film - and then a cool $3.93 million for the New York based sequel.

But the money really started rolling in after the movie's release, with the young star making more than $25 million- and that's on top of the almost $4 million salary he was paid.

It's all down to a special clause inserted in to his contract for the sequel.

Culkin made millions from his time filming Home Alone (Disney)

And it wouldn't have been possible without the success of the first film.

He revealed that Culkin was given five percent of the box office takings for Home Alone 2. The sequel made less than the original movie, but it still grossed a massive $359 million in the box office.

This meant that Culkin's five percent cut of the takings came in at a jaw-dropping $17.95 million.

Taking into account inflation, that's worth around $39 million in today's money. Not bad!