Since the closure of Hollywood’s iconic Cinerama Dome cinema in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Benjamin Steinberg has been making a scene about it. He created a dedicated grassroots social media account, launched a petition that collected more than 30,000 signatures, held several rallies and, in recent days, staged a special effects-driven protest.
The latter sparked a police response, and he now says his “movement” to “save the Cinerama Dome” has ended amid fear of legal retaliation.
What happened?
The 26-year-old actor and director hired a lighting engineer on location to portray a clear rebuke to the property ownership of the theater itself for what he sees as civic abandonment. Lighting specifically called out to Chris Foreman, CEO of his family’s Decorion company: “Mr. Foreman reopen the dome!”
Foreman’s father, William — a pioneering Southern California theater owner who also founded the Pacific Multiplex Cinema chain — opened the dome in 1963, and premiered with It’s a crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world. Later, Forman himself built and later closed his high-end ArcLight theater group, including its main location adjacent to the dome. The family business is now focused on developing commercial and industrial properties.
Two hours after the second night’s demonstration, on April 3, the Los Angeles Police informed Steinberg and his associates that the Fuhrman family considered it harassment and wanted it shut down immediately. Although they were not threatened with arrest or issued a citation, they were operating from a public sidewalk across Sunset Blvd. – Steinberg has since chosen to end the campaign. “I can’t go on,” he says. “This is clearly a First Amendment issue but they are so rich I can’t afford to mess with them.”
Steinberg considers himself a serious accountability activist, armed with public records and inside information. Meanwhile, the Foreman family clearly sees him as a nuisance.
Since the dome’s closure, he has become a close chronicler and eternal optimist of what he believes is the imminent reopening of the venue. But more recently, his letters have become more downbeat, documenting the structure’s accumulating graffiti, broken historic tilework, and revealing finances.
“I found that they reassessed the property to get lower taxes,” Steinberg says, referring to Los Angeles County documents. “That confirmed to me that they won’t be reopening the dome anytime soon. They’re just postponing the reopening and continuing to blame COVID.” He adds that he has been told separately by people in contact with Decurion’s decision-makers that they “don’t want to reopen and lose money on theatrical performances.” [exhibition] now.”
Decurion did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2025, Hollywood Reporter I found that several major exhibitors had made serious inquiries about the dome, but it was not supplied by the family. Decurion’s other legacy real estate holdings include the Hollywood Pacific Theater, which was first developed by Warner Brothers in 1928 as a soundstage and later converted to the widescreen Cinerama format. It has been dormant since it was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
Steinberg, who attended movies at the dome several times each week before it closed, cites the Hollywood Pacific Theater as a grim precedent, and believes civic officials should do more to pressure the Foreman family to return the landmark to active use. “I hope city leadership can try to convince them to reopen it,” he says. “Or at least encourage the family to better communicate their intentions to the public.”
