To be fair, I think the amount that was cropped off the edges by projection was variable based on lots of factors, but nevertheless the amount that was cropped off in a theatre in 1977 is surprisingly large, and all filmmakers knew that it would be when they made their film. This raises some questions about whether the outer edge has the same historical value if nobody ever saw it until it was on home video. Nevertheless this same question hangs around all movies from that period, and the answer that seems to be satisfactory to most people for other films is to show as much of the frame as possible and just forget about the cropping from projection.

Looking forward to the framed images. I was frankly shocked when I saw how much of Star Wars was never seen in the theatre to begin with!