Every Thanksgiving, millions of Americans gather with their family around the table and express their gratitude over delicious food such as turkey and stuffing. Every family has different traditions regarding maximizing their quality time with each other, and one tradition that is as American as the thanks we give is going to the movies.

For Thanksgiving weekend, films are typically released on Wednesday and are considered to have a five-day opening “weekend” as typically schools are out and work is cancelled. This extra padding time is great for movies, as it gives releases some extra time to build word of mouth going into the traditional three-day weekend, and even some extra cash.

At the same time though, if the film is not good, that word of mouth can sputter quickly, and the result will be a lower five-day gross than if the movie was simply released on Friday. This year, we saw both of these effects in action.

The biggest winner of Thanksgiving, bar none, was the Carolina Panthers. Besides them though, “Creed,” the modern spin-off of the beloved Rocky franchise, knocked out the competition with over 40 million over the five days. “Creed” is a special case, in how it appeals to all generations, as younger people will be attracted to the modern themes, cast and music, while older generations want to see the continuation of the “Rocky” saga, as it’s going 40 years strong.

Combined with great reviews, this was a movie that families could rush to the theater together. It technically came in third this weekend, but with a small budget and superb holding power, this was the true winner.

On the other side of the spectrum was 20th Century Fox’s gothic horror-comedy “Victor Frankenstein” starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. In previous years, Radcliffe had seen extreme success with the Harry Potter films over Thanksgiving, but this year he saw no such success in any way. “Victor Frankenstein” opened on Wednesday to a whimper, and limped to around 3 million over the five-day weekend.

Three million dollars over a regular weekend is classified as a gigantic bust, but over five days is simply horrible, and for the people at 20th Century Fox, it’s downright unacceptable. When families are together for Thanksgiving, they want to see something that guarantees a good time.

Not only does “Victor Frankenstein” look totally confused balancing the gothic horror and comedic elements, but few families want to sit and watch a monster movie together. Add in the poor reviews, and you have one of the worst openings ever on Thanksgiving.

“Creed” was the ultimate champion on Thanksgiving while “Victor Frankenstein” was a total turkey, but in the middle we have the holdovers from last week and “The Good Dinosaur,” whose performance was just that: good. Seeing that this is a Pixar film, expectations were high for this film, but ultimately it failed to separate itself from the rest of fall’s family fare, such as “Hotel Transylvania” and “The Peanuts Movie.” It did pretty well, but it was far from a rousing success.

The holdovers from last week, however, have more to be happy about. Because movie attendance is so high for Thanksgiving week, it is a wise strategy to release a film in the weeks before, and sustain a much lower drop than average. Thus, “The Peanuts Movie,” “Spectre” and “The Night Before” all dropped less than 30 percent, and “Mockingjay—Part 2” continued to rack in the cash.

This Thanksgiving proved that audiences want to attend films they can see as a family and enjoy. They know that a Pixar film or a spinoff will be fun and familiar, so they get the tickets.

Erik Benjamin is a sophomore television, radio and film major. You can email him at ebenjami@syr.edu or follow him @embenjamin14 on Twitter.

Published on November 29, 2015 at 8:08 pm