Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Trivia
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Spoilers (2)
In its original theatrical release, Twentieth Century Fox offered a full refund to any viewer who didn't enjoy the movie. Approximately 1,500 tickets were returned to the studio.
The director of photography decided to put a light above each of the actor's and actress's heads during all of the shots to give a distinct glow behind them. As this was popular in the 1990s, it helped give a warm feel to the remake of a classic movie.
Alvin Greenman (The Doorman) played Alfred in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).
Actress Elizabeth Perkins and cinematographer Julio Macat met on the set and later got married in 2000.
In the first shot of the front entrance of the Shopper's Express store, a giant display prop of a Talkboy can be seen briefly through the window. That was Kevin's favorite toy in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), which was also produced by John Hughes.
According to an interview with Adam McKay, Twentieth Century Fox had planned to give this movie a small, eight hundred-screen release until it received a perfect one hundred percent test screening score. Instilled with confidence, the studio tripled the marketing budget and gave it a wider release, but the strategy backfired when it collapsed in the crowded 1994 holiday movie slate, notably compared to another more successful Santa Claus-themed movie, The Santa Clause (1994). McKay attributed its failure to its plot depicting bureaucracy out to disprove the existence of Santa Claus, joking that "No one's going to say Santa Claus sucks."
Bryan Bedford (Dylan McDermott) is the only main character whose name differs from that of the original movie (1947) (Fred Gailey). Bedford Falls is the name of the town It's a Wonderful Life (1946) is set in.
There is a scene in Cole's where Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins) is standing on the second floor looking down at a group of children below. Her hair is pulled back in a low ponytail and she is talking to Mr. Shellhammer. This is a shout out to a scene in Big (1988), in which she also starred. In that, she is also standing on the second floor with the same hair style looking down at a group of children below talking to Paul (John Heard).
Jennifer Morrison played the teenage elf assisting Kris at Cole's.
In 1987-1988, an attempt to remake the movie was set to be produced with Tom Mankiewicz at the helm to direct and Neil Cuthbert writing the screenplay. But it never got made as it was shelved, being deemed that a holiday picture had too narrow a box office window.
Spoilers
Sami...the deaf little girl was actually deaf (one of three deaf siblings from deaf parents). Richard Attenborough asked for her not to be rehearsed for the scene, so the surprise on her face when he spoke sign language to her was genuine.
