<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $19 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $272.7 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American horror - thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott Glenn . Adapted by Ted Tally from the 1988 novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, his second to feature the character of Dr. Hannibal Lecter; a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer, the film was the second adaptation of a Harris novel featuring Lecter, preceded by the Michael Mann - directed Manhunter in 1986 . In the film, Clarice Starling, a young U.S. FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Lecter to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill". </P> <P> The Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, and grossed $272.7 million worldwide against its $19 million budget . It was only the third film, the other two being It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to win Academy Awards in all the top five categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Adapted Screenplay . It is also the first (and so far only) Best Picture winner widely considered to be a horror film, and only the third such film to be nominated in the category, after The Exorcist in 1973 and Jaws in 1975 . The film is considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2011 . A sequel titled Hannibal was released in 2001 with Hopkins reprising his role, followed by two prequels: Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007). </P>

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