American films dominated the Italian box office over the first half of the year taking 65% of the box office earnings.

The success Hollywood films, including Angels & Demons, Fast & Furious and Gran Torino, grew their share of the box office take to 7.76%, up 7.3% from the same period in the previous year.

The appetite for American fare saw local films tumble by 8.2 % year-on-year. US films took 63.8% of attendance, accounting for 32 million tickets, while local product took 24.5% and 12.2 million tickets, down from 17 million over the same period last year. From January 1-June 30 2009, only two Italian films register in the top ten.

Overall, cinemagoers in Italy bought 50 million tickets in the first six months of 2009, representing a 2% drop in over all attendance and a 1.42% drop in box office earnings.

Italian top ten for the first six months of 2009

1 Angels & Demons

2 Italians

3 Seven Pounds

4 The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

5 Ex

6 Gran Torino

7 Fast & Furious

8 Yes Man

9 Journey To The Center Of The Earth – 3D

10 Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa