China will beat the United States to be the world’s largest film market by ticket income next year, a new study has claimed.

The news comes as Beijing is reportedly ordering domestic film buyers to avoid Hollywood productions in apparent retaliation amid an escalating trade war with Washington.

Chinese cinema-goers are set to spend £350 million more than their U.S. counterparts in 2020, heralding Beijing’s dominance in the global box office for the foreseeable future.

China is expected to have the largest film market in the world by box office revenue next year, beating long-time title holder the United States by an estimated £350 million, according to a new study. Above is a picture of Wanda, one of the country’s biggest cinema chains

Analysts project that the Chinese film market will keep growing in the foreseeable future while the U.S. market is set to be stagnant. The worldwide film market will exceed $50 billion in box office revenue in 2023, according to The Hollywood Reporter, citing a study from PwC

The projections were made by analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who expect Chinese film audience to fork over a total of $12.28 billion next year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The U.S. box office is still expected to be higher than its Chinese equivalent this year.

But with a population of 1.4 billion – about four times the U.S. population – the Asian superpower has been selling more film tickets than any other country since 2015, the report added.

The total worldwide entertainment revenue will reach $2.5 trillion in three years, according to the same study. The estimation includes all digital media as well as billboards, books, newspapers and magazines. The figure for the U.S. market is set to exceed 0.75 trillion in 2021

China is also expected to overshadow the U.S. in cinema advertising revenue in the next five years as the Asian country experiences a rapid growth in its entertainment industry

Chinese fans are due to splurge $11.05 billion on cinema admission this year, analysts estimated. The figure is about $1 billion less than the U.S. projection of $12.11 billion.

China has already overtaken the U.S. to be the country with the most film screens in the world.

Statistics shared by official media show there are more than 60,000 cinema screens in China by the end of 2018; while the corresponding figure in the U.S. is 40,575.

Last year, Chinese urban residents paid more than 1.7 billion visits to cinemas and the country’s overall box office revenue exceeded 60 billion yuan ($8.68 billion), Chinese authorities announced.

Three-hour superhero blockbuster Avengers: Endgame reportedly smashed 20 Chinese cinema records after racking up a 2.23 billion yuan haul over a five-day opening weekend. Costumed fans are pictured attending a midnight screening in Shanghai on April 24

The three highest-grossing films ever in China are Chinese-made Wolf Warrior 2 ($820 million) and The Wandering Earth ($679 million); as well as Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Endgame ($610 million), according to Chinese reports.

While the Chinese film market is growing rapidly, Hollywood directors may be facing an increasingly difficult time in the Far East because of the tariff war between Beijing and Washington.

China has started to curb the introduction of some U.S. entertainment content in apparent retaliation against the Trump administration, sources told Variety.

The report claimed that Chinese officials were advising local buyers and distributors to avoid American films.

Last month, Beijing reportedly blocked streaming of Game of Thrones finale because of the political tensions.

Instead of finding out who ended up sitting on the Iron Throne, Chinese ‘Thrones’ watchers received a message informing them of ‘transmission medium problems.’

The message was posted by Tencent Video, the subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Ltd, which has had exclusive streaming rights to the premium cable network’s content in China since 2014.

But HBO later told the Wall Street Journal that the China Thrones blackout wasn’t a technical issue on the company’s part.

An HBO spokesperson confirmed that it was Tencent which blocked transmission of the series finale.