'Angels and Demons' soars in Italy

Film captures best opening day of the year

By NICK VIVARELLI

Sony's "Angels and Demons" got off to a celestial start in Italy, where it captured the best opening day on a weekday of the year.

"Angels," Ron Howard's follow-up to "Da Vinci Code," earned $1.35 million from 800 screens.

Italy was one of the top-performing countries for "Da Vinci," which had plenty of local appeal because of its Catholic-centric storyline, and opposition from the Vatican.

This time around, the church is keeping a much lower profile.

Howard's "Da Vinci" posted an opening-day gross of $2.5 million in Italy, although that was on a Friday.

"Angels" could have even more appeal than "Da Vinci." Howard's film stars popular Italo thesp Pierfrancesco Favino as Inspector Olivetti. Tom Hanks toplines, with Ewan McGregor and Ayelet Zurer co-starring.

"Angels" opened in several other territories on Wednesday, including France. Early estimates showed that "Angels" didn't do the same sort of business in Gaul as it did in Italy. Film opens today in the U.S., as well as expanding into virtually all foreign territories, save a few.

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