Home Alone vs. Dennis the Menace

By Jamie Herfort

Christmas movies are extraordinarily popular in our society today as during the season, a lot of movies come out very quickly and very strategically. For example, movies like Home Alone did well in comparison to movies like Dennis the Menace. Dennis the Menace and Home Alone show young boys running amok even though they are trying to do their best. Home Alone is a Christmas movie, and Dennis the Menace is not.The two movies were created in the 90s, and Home Alone grossed about 476,176.7 million dollars in the box office, whereas Dennis the Menace made in 1993 only grossed about 51 million. Both movies were produced by John Hughes. It can be assumed that almost Dennis the Menace was the box office flop for  Home Alone Fans. John Hughes created Dennis the Menace for Home Alone fans.

Furthermore, John Hughes produced Home Alone but helped write Dennis the Menace. Home Alone is about a boy named Kevin McCallister, who on Christmas Eve, gets sent to sleep in the attic, and his family forgets to wake him up to take him with them to Paris. Dennis ends up getting stuck in the house all alone. It happened to be Christmas and he did not have his family with him. Eventually he ends up protecting his house because two robbers were trying to break into the McCallister home.

Whereas Denice the menace is about a little boy named Dennis Mitchell, a mischievous troublemaker who loves to pull pranks and drives his neighbor Mr. Wilson crazy. The movie begins when Dennis's parents leave on vacation, and he has to live with Mr. Wilson and his wife as his parents can't find a babysitter, so they ask Mr. Wilson and his wife. Mr. Wilson reluctantly says yes to looking after Dennis. During the time that Dennis stayed with Mr. Wilson, a burglar steals Mr. Wilson's coin collection and kidnaps Dennis. Mr. Wilson then goes on this journey to look for Dennis but uses the pranks that Dennis has taught him. Dennis escapes the burglar using the pranks he used to pull on Mr. Wilson, and in the end, Mr. Wilson comes to like and care for Dennis, not reluctantly.

“The garden is a place where people can go and relax, think, read...you name it. ”

These two movies, Dennis the Menace and Home Alone show young children playing pranks that end up helping save themselves or save their families. It can be said that John Hughes wrote Dennis the Menace while thinking of Home Alone as he and the producers in the company wanted Dennis the menace to be just as big a blockbuster as Home Alone was. What was not surprising was that Home Alone did infinitely better than Dennis the Menace did.

Works Cited:

• Mendelson, Scott. “A Failed 'Home Alone' Rip-Off And Box Office Disappointment Was Yesterday's Most-Watched Netflix Movie.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 Aug. 2020.

• Joe, Brown. “Dennis the Menace.” Washington Post, 25 June 1993.