A highly visible marketing campaign for Italian film My Brother-In-Law (Mio Cognato) is paying off for 01 Distribution, as the picture grossed $241,984 from just 89 screens on its opening weekend, earning a strong $2,719 per screen.

Directed by Alessandro Piva, My Brother-In-Law is set in the southern town of Bari and focuses on the relationship between Toni, an irrepressible 40-year-old and Vito, his quiet, married brother-in-law. The picture stars popular actor-director Sergio Rubini (Teeth) and actor-of-the-moment Luigi Lo Cascio (Buongiorno, Notte).

Meanwhile, Italian audiences crowded cinemas to see American Pie: The Wedding. The UIP movie, whose main star Jason Biggs attended the Venice Film Festival last month to promote Anything Else, earned a massive $2,519,217 from 386 screens, grossing a huge $7,042 screen average.

Woody Allen was also given proof of his continuing popularity in Italy, as the Medusa movie Anything Else, which sees Allen share the spotlight with Biggs, came in fourth grossing $676,290 from 179 screens for a healthy screen average of $ 3,712.