片场制度(studio system)

美国电影公司藉以控制生产，分配及展示之所有部分的系统。在1920年代，如派拉蒙及米高梅的制片公司需要连锁的戏院来加强其对这个工业的垂直掌控，以及之後如华纳公司（Warner Brothers）、雷电华影片公司及二十世纪福斯（Twentieth Century-Fox）也建立相似的帝国。片场的领导者尽力地控制电影制作的形式及导演和演员的租借，只有少数的导演在他们自己的影片中保有独立性。片场制度亦发展出「明星制度」（star system），藉此，某些男演员及女演员则因其名演员身分而被修饰，片场经营者藉由选择这些演员的角色，宣传他们萤幕外令人感到魅惑的生活，并且藉由长期的合约控制他们。但这个制度在美国最高法院於1948年强迫大型片场必须卖掉他们的连锁戏院的判决，以及来自电视竞争的增加迫使大型片场必须缩限他们的编制後，就衰退了，并且，在1960年代被有效的终止。

English version：

studio system

System whereby U.S. movie companies controlled all aspects of production, distribution, and exhibition. In the 1920s such film studios as Paramount and MGM acquired theater chains to strengthen their vertical control of the industry, and Warner Brothers, RKO, and Twentieth Century-Fox built similar empires soon thereafter. Studio heads exerted control over the types of movies to be made and the directors and actors to be hired; only a few directors maintained some independent control over their films. The studio system also developed the "star system," by which certain actors and actresses were groomed for stardom, with studio executives choosing their roles, publicizing their glamorized offscreen lives, and keeping them under control through long contracts. The system declined after a 1948 Supreme Court decision forced the large studios to sell their theater chains and increasing competition from television forced studios to limit their staffs, and by the 1960s it had effectively ended.