If I'm to be totally honest, I had long since given up hope that Martin Scorsese's Silence would arrive by the end of the year, and certainly not in time for the awards season. And if that happened, well then there was a good chance we wouldn't see it until the awards push next year, which would have been a terrible wait. Fortunately, Paramount has found a spot for the anticipated 3-hour epic, and it's during the crowded Christmas holiday weekend.
Silence will get a limited theatrical run on December 23rd, expanding wide in January. This has been a tried and true approach for many an Oscar contender and Scorsese's film certainly falls into that category. The adaptation of Shusako Endo's novel follows a pair of 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel to Japan to find their mentor and spread the word of Christianity, facing persecution and violence the whole way.
That weekend's going to be tough, though, with Sing, Assassin's Creed, and Passengers taking up a lot of room. But Silence has the benefit of prestige and Oscar hopes, so it doesn't necessarily need a booming box office debut to be successful. [Variety]
