 
While the Peruvian film industry has not been nearly as prolific as that of some other Latin American countries, such as Mexico or Argentina, some Peruvian movies produced enjoyed regional success. Historically, the cinema of Peru began in Iquitos in 1932 by Antonio Wong Rengifo (with a momentous, initial film billboard from 1900) because of the rubber boom and the intense arrival of foreigners with technology to the city, and thus continued an extensive, unique filmography, with a different style than the films made in the capital, Lima.
In Lima, the first Peruvian sound film (with synchronized music and some talking sequences) was Alberto Santana's "Resaca", which was released in 1934. This was followed by another sound film entitled "Cosas de la vida" in 1934. The first all-talking picture, "Buscando Olvido", was finally released in 1936.
More recently some bestselling novels by Peruvian author and talk show host Jaime Bayly, including "No se lo Digas a Nadie" and "La Mujer de mi Hermano", have been made into movies. In fact, Francisco Jose Lombardi, perhaps the most important Peruvian filmmaker of recent years, has made most of his films from adaptations of important Peruvian novels. Peru also produced the first animated 3-D film in Latin America, "Piratas en el Callao". This film is set in the historical port city of Callao, which during colonial times had to defend itself against attacks by Dutch and British privateers seeking to undercut Spain's trade with its colonies. The film was produced by the Peruvian company Alpamayo Entertainment, which made a second 3-D film one year later: "".
In February 2006, the film "Madeinusa", produced as a joint venture between Peru and Spain and directed by Claudia Llosa, was set in an imaginary Andean village and describes the stagnating life of Madeinusa performed by Magaly Solier and the traumas of post-civil war Peru.
Claudia Llosa, who shared elements of Gabriel García Márquez's magic realism, won an award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Llosa's second feature, "The Milk of Sorrow" ("La Teta Asustada"), was nominated for the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Picture, the first Peruvian film in the academy's history to be nominated and, won the Golden Bear award at the 2009 Berlinale.
On April 11, 2013, The film "¡Asu Mare!" premiered nationwide. This film is an adaptation of a stand-up comedy starring Carlos Alcántara Vilar. The film is actually an autobiography, in which Carlos Alcantara tells his life story and how he became the actor he is today. The film was written and produced by Carlos Alcantara and was a huge box-office hit. Since the release, the actor has gained a lot of popularity. The film is a testament that the comedy genre can strike the right chord in the Peruvian film audience.
The Peruvian film industry has witnessed unprecedented development during the late 2010s. In 2015 the number of cinema tickets sold in Peru was 46 million in comparison to Argentina's 52.1 million. Peru's television industry has also witnessed a comeback from the 1990s as indicative of the first half of 2016. Subscriptions to Peru cable company Movistar TV represented the third highest increase in Latin America, following that of Mexico and Brazil. According to PWC's Global Media Outlook 2019-2023 report, Peruvian total box office was $181 million that is expected to grow to $242 million by 2023. Despite, Peru being one of the smallest Latin American markets the number of screens increased to 661 in 2018 and would amount to 789 by 2023. In terms of Latin America in general, production levels are rising in the countries of Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina with the region expected to raise revenue from $2.4 billion in 2018 to $3.2 billion by 2023 with an annual growth rate of 5.7%.
2018 has been a record year for the box office of Peruvian cinema ever since the highs in 2013. Attendance amounted to a record seven million viewers. For the first time, Peruvian films were released monthly and all the films in the top ten national premieres managed to accumulate six-digit figures in their respective box office. The three main distributors in Peru are Tondero Films (49.1%), Big Bang Film (12.7%) and La Soga Producciones (10.1%).
History.
Background (1897-1918) - Silent Period.
The first performance of a film (using the cinematograph of the Lumière brothers) was performed in February 1897, at the Confiteria Jardin Strasbourg (now Club de la Unión), in Lima, Peru. A month earlier, moving images had been projected with the apparatus called Vitascope invented by Thomas Alva Edison.
The early 1900s witnessed a reconstruction of society during the rule of Nicolas De Piérola. As a civic leader in Peruvian history, Piérola emphasized the growth of state activity that also included the cinema industry. The audience who witnessed at first, the screenings of the Vitascope and the Cinematographer were from the aristocracy and the images they observed were from landscapes of other countries such as Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Elysées. Gradually, street exhibitors who purchased the motion picture film cameras took the first images of Peru during 1899. These were the first images of Peruvian geography projected by a cinematographic camera that included places such as the road to La Oroya at Chanchamayo or the Cathedral Basilica of Lima. Thereafter an age of documentary film making started as cameramen traveled to Peru, the Pacific Ocean, the Andes, and the Amazon regions to record landscapes,ceremonies, feasts, rites, public works as a means of visual identification. In 1904 businessman Juan José Pont, after a tour of different South American countries, was encouraged to record with the cinematograph different places of Lima.
The cinematographic experience from 1909 to 1912 was noted for its journalism. News documentary genre was popular through Jorge Enrique Goitizolo segments about bulls, military ceremonies, races and the carnival. Fernando Lund's Compañía Internacional Cinematográfica (Cinematographic Company) delighted the audience about journeys from southern Peru, Bolivia, regattas and hydroelectric facilities in Chosica. The documentaries also featured political events such as the general strike in Lima, the last combat of the government troops with the revolutionaries of Don Orestes Ferro and the combat at the Chira River. The pioneers of these times set the first stage for short films industry in Peru whose initial length was about ten minutes. The first Peruvian shorts originated under the documentary genre within the genre of informative journalism.
The Cinema Theater Company (Empresa del Cinema Teatro) was founded in 1915 in Lima. Together with the opening of the famous show center Teatro Colón in Lima in 1914 a new film audience was started. The first Peruvian film of fiction named "Negocio al Agua (1913 Film)" ("Water Business") released in the theater on 14 April 1913 based on "Comedia en 5 Partes" ("Comedy in 5 Parts") produced by Cinema Teatro. The script was written by acclaimed poet and satirical writer . The film had a duration of about 10 minutes qualifying it as Peru's first comedy short film. On 18 June 1913, the second tragicomedy film of Peru released called ""Del Manicomio Al Matrimonio (1913 Film)" (From Asylum to Marriage)" in direct response to "Negocia al Agua" The film consisted of six parts and was estimated to last about 11 minutes. The film was directed by María Isabel Sánchez-Concha, Peru's first female director. "Negocia al Agua"'s promotional activities were organized by women and it depicted family relationships.
1919-1930 - Leguía Era.
The decade of the Twenties witnessed a revival in the cinema industry marked by documentary news and cinematographic footage of galas, carnivals, banquets, horse races etc. The decade was marked by the prosperous regime of Augusto B. Leguía whose imposition of the modernization movement called the "Oncenio" ("Patria Nueva") created new areas of occupation such as reporters and writers. The government used the camera to display the celebratory and prosperous times of Peru although the film industry was noted for its discontinuity ever since the 26 July 1922 release of "Camino de la Venganza", noted as the first Peruvian national feature film. It was a drama filmed by the photographer and painter Luis Ugarte and starred Teresita Arce. Guillermo Garland Higginson as a talented cameraman popularized documentary travelogues such as "Viaje a Cusco y Chanchamayo (1929)" that featured sweeping panorama's of Cusco, Koricancha, Sacsayhuamán, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. The restoration efforts of negatives by "Archi", have made it possible to verify the existence of the travelogues.
A significant film was "Luis Pardo" created by Enrique Cornejo Villanueva in 1927 which also starred Teresita Arce. The film was shot in the manner of the Douglas Fairbanks tapes. The 1928 release of "La Perricholi" by Enzo Longhi was released with great fanfare and demonstrated Peruvian film potential. The film was noted for its clothing, richness in details, composition and sets in Rospigliosi Castle and the Quinta de Presa mansion in Rímac. The film was screened at the Seville Exhibition of 1928.
The 1930 film "El Carnaval Del Amor" by Pedro Sambarino was the first juxtaposition film between the city and the countryside. Sambarino who came back from Bolivia directing the country's first film called "Corazón Aymara" wanted to hire a script writer well known in Peru. Peru's first reporter was noted for her cinematographic and short stories. Sambarino hired Ramos for the script that highlighted the juxtaposition of a city carnival and the countryside's Pachamanca Peruvian Harvest Feast. The film was well received by the public through reviews in journals.
However, the Peruvian film industry was still in name only in the early 1930s. The endeavor to create the industry in stone was undertaken by talented directors from local and foreign countries whose goal was to establish continuity with production companies. Peruvian film directors and Ricardo Garland were directing films in Argentina and US respectively. Polish actress, Stefanía Socha released a film called "Los Abismosde la Vida" in 1929. The script belonged to journalist and poet Julio Alfonso Hernández. As one of Peru's first overseas woman pioneers in film making who arrived in Peru in 1926, Socha created an acting academy for cinema called "Peru Film."
Chilean director Alberto Santana was the most noticeable of the group whose entrepreneurial spirit set the first steps in creating a Peruvian film industry. Santana's company Patria Films premiered films in the genres of comedy and melodrama during the silent period such as "Como Chaplin (1929)," "Las Chicas Del Jirón de la Unión (1930)", and the melodrama classic ""Yo Perdí Mi Corazón en Lima" (1933)." However the film industry did not materialize until the 1940s. The stage for cinema bought acclaimed actors to publicity such as Teresita Arce and Mario Musseto.
Teresita Arce became the first popular Peruvian actress. Arce was noted for her creative arts in a bourgeois theatre company. Luis Ugarte's "Camino de la Venganza" featured Teresita Arce as the main role of Juanacha, a young native woman who must defend against the exploitation of the miner McDonald. Arce also acted as the bride of the bandit Luis Pardo in the film of the same name. Teresita Arce's career spans to the 1960s that featured her performing in theater and radio dramas.
The 1930s was marked by turbulent political and economic events. The rise of the Arequipa Revolution by Luis Miguel Sánchez Cerro as well as the reduction in purchasing power of the middle class due to a global financial downturn of 1929 severely deterred the rise of the film industry in Peru. Peruvian film making was known for its ritualized, hyper-expressive, melodramatic content. Peruvian cinema also contrasted with the cinemas of other Latin American countries that were known for their nationalism, avant-garde, indigenous themes. Peruvian directors focused on a flat and direct cinema, conceived to move feelings and arrive without complications for the public. Additionally, the film mentality of Peru markedly contrasted with its peers as the arrival of sound in 1927 greatly affected the melodramatic silent cinema market in Peru. In comparison to this great anachronism, "Luis Pardo", one of the most popular tapes of Peruvian cinema, was released in October 1927, the same year as Alan Crosland's sound film "The Jazz Singer". As a result, the sound period created a crisis in the silent era period.
1934-1950 - Sound Period.
The first time sound would be incorporated in a Peruvian film will be Alberto Santana's "Resaca" released in July 1934. Director Sigifredo Salas heralded a new era in sound films by first releasing the optical sound film "Buscando