Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Released November 20, 1992, Home Alone 2 reunited director Chris Columbus and writer-producer John Hughes for the same formula on a bigger stage. Macaulay Culkin's Kevin accidentally boards a flight to New York while his family flies to Florida; Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern return as the freshly escaped Wet Bandits — rebranded the Sticky Bandits — with Tim Curry as the Plaza Hotel's magnificently suspicious concierge, Brenda Fricker as the Central Park pigeon lady, and Catherine O'Hara and John Heard back as the panicking parents.

It cost $28 million and earned $359 million worldwide — the third-highest-grossing film of 1992, behind only The Bodyguard and Aladdin — after a $31.1 million opening weekend. The Plaza Hotel scenes were shot in the real Plaza, and its then-owner Donald Trump granted filming access in exchange for a brief cameo on top of the standard fee. The traps escalated well past the original's — Pesci genuinely suffered burns to his head filming the hat-fire gag.

Critics mostly shrugged (35% on Rotten Tomatoes); kids emphatically did not care, and the movie became a permanent fixture of December basic cable. It also left a real-world toy behind: Kevin's Talkboy cassette recorder was produced as an actual Tiger Electronics tie-in and sold huge once the film hit home video — it has its own entry in this vault. For a lot of 90s kids, New York at Christmas still looks like this movie.