A frame from a film negative showing Grimoin-Sanson's factory at 23 Avenue de Chatillon where the hardware for his Cinéorama was manufactured. Created for the 1890 Paris Exposition, the Cinéorama was an early version of modern-day simulation rides. It reproduced a ride in a hot air balloon using ten projectors arranged in a circle projecting outward onto a 30 foot high, 360 degree screen. The spectators stood facing the screen beneath a mockup of a balloon on a platform above the projection booth (Lipton 2021, 127–128). In addition to the takeoff and landing, the show included film of exotic locations.

Unfortunately while Grimoin-Sanson was traveling the world to capture footage of those exotic locations, compromises were made in the Cinéorama's construction that reduced the ventilation in the projection booth. The heat from ten projectors, each of which contained a 40 amp arc lamp, raised the temperature in the booth to 115 °F. The Cinéorama was shut down by the police after only four presentations, according to Grimoin-Sanson (Grimoin-Sanson 1926, 127–130), although Mannoni states that in reality no presentations at all were performed (Mannoni 2024). Having lost all his money, Grimoin-Sanson abandoned cinema and went on to work in the cork industry, where he was quite successful and more than earned it back (MacGowan 1957, 219).