Off-Centerpiece : Critics, Start Your Reviews: John Hughes Talks About ‘Home Alone’--the Sequel

Get ready to rewrite the box-office record books again. Sometime in the next three days, “Home Alone” will replace “Jaws” to become the fourth-highest-grossing movie in the United States.

But don’t write it in ink. Within another week to 10 days, the John Hughes film about an 8-year-old boy defending his house from burglars will overtake “Return of the Jedi” to become the No. 3-ranked film at the box office.

You’re probably safe putting that one in ink. “Home Alone” won’t scale the heights of either No. 2 (“Star Wars,” $322 million) or No. 1 (“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” $399.8 million).

After 20 weeks in theaters, “Home Alone” has sold $257.5 worth of tickets as of the middle of last week. Two weeks ago, it passed No. 5-ranked “Batman” ($251 million) and, given its current rate, distributor 20th Century Fox predicts it will easily pass the $260-million gross of “Jaws” and the $263-million figure of “Jedi.”

Hughes, who wrote and produced the film (Chris Columbus directed), is incredulous over the success of the $18.2-million production. “Who would have guessed it?” he asks, comparing it to his previous efforts, such as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and other teen-oriented pictures that have reached plateaus of $70 million--but never beyond. His newest film, “Career Opportunities,” which he also wrote and produced, is in his view, “a disappointment” because “I didn’t have my usual creative control.” The comedy opened to a light $4 million in first-weekend business.

When he was first contemplating “Home Alone,” the Chicago-based Hughes recalls, “I was trying real hard to follow (my own) lessons of success and look for something that would write itself--where the situation is so simple and strong that it will unfold naturally.

“The usual take on my films is that they don’t perform at the overseas box office,” Hughes says. But in 36 nations and territories, “Home Alone” has generated another $135.8 million as of midweek. The movie’s “physical comedy,” Hughes said, “needs no translation.”

The “Home Alone” sequel will only be made if Hughes can reassemble all the elements of the first film, he says. That includes Culkin and other cast members, as well as burglars Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, who will return--if schedules permit.

Wouldn’t the crooks be in jail, after being foiled by Kevin in the first movie? “Well, yes,” admits Hughes. “But by the time we start making the film, given our penal system, they would probably already be out of prison.”

He says the sequel, which could begin shooting in August, may be called “Alone Again” “just to see how many critics will start their reviews, ‘Alone Again, naturally’ “--from the hit ‘70s Gilbert O’Sullivan song of the same name.