Hollywood billboards in Beijing in 2012. Photo: Olivier Chouchana/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
China is restricting Hollywood's access to its box office revenue as the U.S.-China trade war drags on, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: The Chinese market is as crucial to U.S. film studios — 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney, Sony pictures, etc. — as it is to any other U.S. industry. China is projected to have the world's biggest moviegoing audience by 2020, according a PricewaterhouseCoopers study.
The intrigue: Disney is the only exception to China's current freeze on granting film release dates to American films, the Post reports — thanks in part to the Shanghai government's majority ownership of Shanghai Disney.
Go deeper: How China is building its own Hollywood