During its more than a century history, social institution of cinema in Iran has been confronting with the three major challenges:1) the challenge of gaining and preserving popularity of cinema. 2) the challenge of gaining and preserving a legitimate status in the society and culture. 3) the challenge of gaining and preserving a politico-cultural and socio- economic environment suitable for film making. As far as theoretical framework is concerned, the paper looks at the process of diffusion, reception and development of cinema in any society and culture as a unique process which deserves separate investigation. Because any culture gives its own meaning to the cinema, and this process of meaning formation does not happen once as popularity, status and social environment of cinema changes in the course of time. In this paper discourse of cinema is defined as the distinct meanings different cultures ascribe to the cinema in different periods of time. Regarding methodology, popularity has been studied and measured by relevant statistical indices; while, status and social environment, as qualities, have been understood by interpretation of relevant documents. This long history of cinema in Iran is divided into six periods and in each period popularity, social legitimacy, and social environment of cinema have been examined in the paper. The study shows that in the course of time different discourses of cinema competed with each other in Iran and in each period a specific discourse has been dominant.