Home Alone made $500 million. Home Alone 2 made $250 million. It is not difficult to see why they made a third. It is difficult to see why they made such a sow's ear of it.
The template is identical, and John Hughes even wrote it, but Culkin is replaced by the less expressive Alex D. Linz and the four slapstick villains are unknowns who learnt their falling-over shtick watching Rentaghost.
With some pretty dreadful dialogue and obviously using the crime-stopping tricks that weren't good enough for the first two movies it lack the style fun and seasonal magic of the previous two films. It also really misses Culkin.
Ultimately the problem lies with the film's failure to improve on its own formula. More catapults, more paint, more explosions . . . but more is less.
