Home Alone actor inserted special clause into his contract that earned him millions in royalties

It's coming to that time of year where Home Alone is essential viewing.

Everyone watches it and marvels at the size of the house and how much the parents must have been earning to buy such real estate.

One of the actors made megabucks from his role which means he could probably buy any house he likes - and it's not Macaulay Culkin.

You'll recognise him as on of the villains from the film, as one half of the delightfully titled Wet Bandits.

Marv Murchins, one of the incompetent burglars, was played by Daniel Stern in the original Home Alone movie, and then the sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.

Fortunately for Daniel Stern, he had a clause inserted into the contract for the sequel.

It meant he managed to pocket millions and gave his bank account quite the boost.

Daniel Stern starred as one of the unfortunate burglars (20th Century Fox)

Despite having one of the most iconic roles in film history, Stern confessed he very nearly turned down the part.

Can you imagine missing out on that?

The 1990 film was a smash hit and is still much loved today.

However, the filming duration was bumped up from six weeks to eight, but producers didn't offer any extra money above the $300,000 he was expecting.

He pulled out of the film, but producers then called him back after they didn't like his replacement.

With the benefit of hindsight, he called the decision as 'one of the stupidest decisions in my show business life'.

When it came around to filming the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, he decided to play hardball with his offer.

After all, the first film was such a hit it raked in $500 million (£393 million) worldwide.

Daniel asked for more money for the sequel (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SBIFF)

Stern was initially offered $600,000 (£472,000 ) - which might seem like a mega payday compared to the first film, but he soon found out his co-star Joe Pesci was earning up to $3 million (£2.36 million).

He left his agent who asked him to take $800,000, but then he asked for $1.5 million instead.

Not only that, but he wanted a clause adding which would net him two percent of the gross profits.

“I knew they couldn’t do the movie without me, but I was also insecure, since I almost blew it the first time,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be too greedy when I loved the movie and the part so much.”

He managed to bag the $1.5 million, but ended up with one percent rather than two.

That still turned into a hefty payday though, as Home Alone 2 was also a huge hit.

It raked in $359,000,000 (£282,000,000) worldwide, earning Stern an extra $3.59 million.

With inflation, today that would be worth $8.07 million.

Macaulay Culkin recently floated an idea for another film - with that sort of payday we're sure that Stern would happily return again.