Just yesterday, when a trio of brand-new one-sheets debuted for Juan Antonio Bayona‘s The Impossible, we were lamenting the fact that the film’s distributor, Summit Entertainment, had yet to announce a stateside release date. Well, perhaps they heard our cry for support, as a settled-on opening of December 21st has now been unveiled by way of Twitter.

It will be a limited-scale debut, beginning in New York and Los Angeles before branching outward. Though that may initially seem like a weak play for a natural-disaster action-thriller starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, it’s entirely understandable when considering the unbelievably crowded platform of mid-to-late-December releases. This year, they include, among others: Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, and Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby. (There’s also slightly “smaller” fare like This is 40 or Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty to think about.)

The more modest approach Summit has wisely opted for will hopefully allow the film — if it lives up to the potential of Bayona‘s last film, The Orphanage — room to breathe and gain an audience over a sustained period of time. Be sure to catch up with the film’s international trailer, which hit the web back in April. I also imagine, in lieu of this announcement, that we may be getting a domestic-flavored preview sometime in the near future. Stay tuned.

Will you keep an eye out for The Impossible this coming Deember?