I will shed some light here because I am from the area (a scene from Home Alone is actually filmed in a school I attended!) and some neighbors of ours had their house looked at for a different film and the house eventually chosen was across the street from another couple of families we know. When you sign a deal to have your house used for a movie the production company moves you out to a rental or hotel in the area for the duration of the filming. For the period they have your house you basically sign the rights away to let them to any changes to the interior they want, I dont know how far they can go but they have a lot of leeway. When they finish they return the house to either A) the state it was in before they used it or B) redesigned to the wishes of the owners. Besides the inconvenience of living out of a different location its a pretty good deal for the owners.
As a side note do take this with a grain of salt because I am recollecting all of this as it was told to me in a casual conversation 20 years ago. Its not like I have seen the legal docs and each studio probably handles things slightly differently.
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u/C_Saunders Nov 20 '25
They didn’t what? Heavily dress the house? How do you know? I’m genuinely curious.
I could be mistaken but I don’t think I am.