Film ban

Italy played a remarkable role in the development of the Dollywood studios. After WWll, economic sanctions were applied to Italy for its role in the war. As a result, Italian production companies were not allowed to produce commercial films abroad.
This prompted Joop Geesink to open his own production offices in Milan, Italy, and all of a sudden he no longer was a "foreign" film producer. This resulted in a relatively high number of Italian film projects which continued even after the economic sanctions were lifted.

As an additional bonus, Italy was an attractive base of operation for his other production company STARFILM, which specialized in live action films. 

80-20 rule

The Italian government ordered that all commercial films for cinema use had to have a content of approx. 80% entertainment, leaving a meagre 20% for their sales pitch (the exact arrangement cannot be verified at this point). Consequently, their already deliberate pace slowed down even more before making their point.