A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with permanent exterior sets for outdoor scenes in motion picture and/or television productions.

Some movie studios build a wide variety of sets on the backlot, which can be modified for different purposes as need requires and "dressed" to resemble any time period or look. These sets include everything from mountains, forests, ships, canals, jungle lagoons, country lanes, gas stations, town squares, a fountain, a church, a swimming pool, and small town settings from anywhere in the United States or the world, as well as streets from the Old West, to whole modern day city blocks from such places as New York City, Paris, Berlin, London, et cetera. There are streets that comprise an assortment of architectural styles, Victorian to suburban homes, and 19th century-style townhouses that encircle a central park with trees. Or, in the case of Universal Studios, the home of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie Cinema