Hollywood as we know it may be coming to an unhappy end as a result of plummeting ticket sales of American movies in China.

Many U.S. film studios are dependent on the international releases of their films because the rise of streamed movies on the Internet has caused domestic box office sales to go down.

Hollywood’s global strategy, which solely depends on China’s ticket sales for high-budget fantasy 3D movies and IMAX films, is starting to fall apart.

“The ticket sales on American films in China is already affecting the industry,” said Billy Flanagan, a digital cinema student at DePaul with a concentration in cinema production. “Large Hollywood studios are making movies with great intention to have their film released in China because they are currently Hollywood’s largest international market.”

Last year the number of foreign films released in China expanded. “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” led the Chinese box office for 23 weeks straight, which meant a large portion of the film’s ticket sales came from China.

But this fantasy didn’t last long. According to the online publication Chinafilmbiz.com, in the first quarter this year ticket sales for American movies in China fell 65 percent to about $200 million, while sales for Chinese language films rose 128 percent to over $500 million.

“Regarding ticket sales, China takes up almost 20 percent of the world’s population,” said Jack Rosman, USC film student. “They have the biggest market, so if something happens where American films are banned in China…then Hollywood will take a big hit and lose most of their profits.”

“Iron Man 3” will be opening in a few days and will show alongside the recently released Chinese romance “So Young,” a film about a young woman who reconnects her with her college sweethearts. These two movies will be going head-to-head for box office sales, foreshadowing the future of the Hollywood presence in China.

“I feel that Chinese censorship has gotten worse and worse regarding American films being released in China,” said Alex Grayson, Loyola Marymount film production student. “They have this ‘code’ that they follow where certain things cannot be shown in China because it gives them the ‘wrong impression,’ and honestly, I find that more dampening to themselves rather than to Americans.”

Flanagan predicts that the U.S. movie industry would collapse if China stopped showing American films.

“The Chinese government won’t release American films if they feel the movie doesn’t abide by their censorship laws,” said Flanagan. “Many studios in the U.S. take this into great consideration and only produce films they feel will hit it big internationally rather than domestically because they are so dependent to make profit on international box office sales rather than domestic.”