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It’s based on the FAO Schwartz toy store located in Manhattan . The entirety of the story line of ‘Home Alone’ takes place in and around the McCallister family house and neighborhood in a suburb in Chicago. While the vast majority of the scenes take place in the McCallister house itself, certain other scenes also take place in numerous other locations including a church, a skating park, and a grocery store. Home Alone 2 opened with $31.1 million from 2,222 theaters, averaging $14,008 per site.
Even people who’ve never been to New York City have a strong connection to the park, in part because of the film’s central character, Kevin McAllister , and his relationship with the park-dwelling Pigeon Lady . In one scene, Kevin hides from the inept criminal duo Harry and Marv by hopping in a trunk on the back of a hansom cab at Bethesda Terrace. As the so-called “Sticky Bandits” search for him, Kevin is pulled away toward Bow Bridge and Cherry Hill.
Sequels
If you want to really live like Kevin, you can try requesting the suite he stayed in, 411. For me, it resonates because it was shot when New York was still new to me—I’d moved to the city in 1988—and so in some ways, Kevin’s explorations of the city mimic my own young-adult experiences. For other people, a movie like Splash might be their madeleine and Daryl Hannah’s Madison their stand-in. Or it might be Popeye Doyle in The French Connection or Kathleen Kelly in You’ve Got Mail or whichever character connects you back to your original New York.

He uses Peter's credit card to check in at the Plaza Hotel, not knowing that the Wet Bandits have also reached the city after escaping from prison. A few times throughout the film, Kevin goes to a massive toy store called Duncan's Toy Chest. The exterior shots of the toy store were actually filmed in Chicago. Most of the hotel scenes throughout the movie were actually shot in the iconic building. When Ratray tells me that the feeling behind Home Alone 2 is what lasts longer than anything in “the actual script,” he’s latched onto something that’s also true about architecture and memory. We have a tendency to fetishize the past, good and bad, whether that’s the Times Square of street walkers and three-card monty, or the bucolic streets of Greenwich Village before real estate prices soared.
SCENE
The Plaza Hotel is a landmark 20-story luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. This is also the hotel where Donald Trump makes his cameo appearance in the lobby when Kevin asks him for directions. At the time of filming he owned the hotel and insisted on being in it. The interior shots of the store were filmed in the Uptown Theater in Chicago.

After losing sight of his family and boarding the wrong flight, Kevin gets introduced to Home Alone 2 filming locations in NYC via LaGuardia Airport—kicking off the rest of the movie and story. On Christmas Eve, Kevin visits a toy store whose kindly owner, Mr. Duncan, plans to donate the day's sale proceeds to a children's hospital. After Kevin makes a donation, Mr. Duncan gives him a pair of ceramic turtledoves in thanks, instructing him to give one to another person as a gesture of eternal friendship. The concierge at the Plaza confronts Kevin about his use of Peter's credit card, now reported as stolen; Kevin flees the hotel but is caught by the Wet Bandits. Marv mentions his and Harry's plan to rob the store before Kevin escapes in an encounter with a passerby. Similar to a few other Home Alone 2 film locations, Duncan’s Toy Chest is a fictional place.
Times Square
It's located at West 120th Street out in Harlem, which is about 75 blocks from Carnegie Hall. Completed back in 1888, the Rookery was designated a National Historic Landmark back in 1975. What viewers see in the movie is the beautiful arched entrance, which of course remains just as it was back in 1992. Kevin finds the store of his dreams in Duncan's Toy Chest, a building that isn't actually found in New York. Those well-versed in historic buildings may recognize this as the Rookery Building, a historic landmark in Chicago.
Everything about the film, including the hilarious performance of villainous duo Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, the charming Macaulay Culkin, and the memorable soundtrack by the legendary John Williams is iconic. Other filming locations include the World Trade Center, the New York Subway and Central park, while in Chicago, scenes were shot in the Hilton Hotel and at O'Hare International Airport. In an attempt to prevent Marv and Rob from robbing the toy store, Kevin lures the two criminals to one of Home Alone 2’s final filming locations—his Uncle’s brownstone. The treehouse where Kevin escapes to during the film’s climax was constructed especially for the movie.
Queensboro Bridge
Kevin is coming from the park, headed to his accommodation for the night. The statue at Grand Army Plaza points the way across the street to the hotel. Crossing the busy intersection here, at 59th Street, is where Marv and Harry first bump into Kevin. A video-game adaptation of the sequel was also released in 1992. The production staff created another fake old-timey movie for the sequel.
Kevin slips away, calls the police from a pay phone to alert them to the pair's presence, and flees toward Central Park. Kevin provides photographic and tape-recorded evidence against them, and Mr. Duncan recovers the donation money and finds a note from Kevin explaining why he broke the window. The family arrives in New York, and Kate, remembering Kevin's fondness for Christmas trees, finds him making a wish at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. The store itself isn't real, but it seems to have been inspired by F.A.O. Schwarz, a similarly huge toy store and tourist attraction in NYC. The film shot some scenes inside the real Plaza Hotel, but there's not actually a pool there.
But even before that, viewers see Kevin walking up some stairs into the complex itself with the two iconic buildings proudly standing in the background. The entire movie was filmed across Chicago and New York, despite the majority of the story being based in NYC. The actual location used for the scenes in the film was in Universal Studios on Brownstone Street! They just used an address here in NYC, that Hollywood trickery. After finally arriving to New York, Kevin’s mom Kate (Played by Catherine O’Hara) goes on a desperate search for her son and catches a cab to Times Square. While it’s one of Home Alone 2’s briefest use of NYC locations, the setting is still a memorable one.

This is the most heartwarming location of the movie since Kevin wants to help children who are sick and having a difficult time have a happier holiday. Kevin walks around the city and passes by Radio City Music Hall. This is a famous and beloved part of NYC and is still standing today, with many tourists and residents alike attending performances here.