surroundsound99

Dek Rollins said:

All three Star Wars films would’ve been shown in 2.39 on 35mm, and 70mm blow-ups cropped to 2.20 of course. The reason there is conflicting info on scope aspect ratios is because standards changed a couple times I think. To my knowledge, any film made in 1970+ was projected with a 2.39 gate. This wiki page actually has the history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_format#Aspect_ratio

Thanks for the link! Excuse my ignorance. Are you saying that 35mm film can be blown-up to 70mm? And why would it need to be cropped to 2.20? Is that why IMDB shows multiple ratios for A New Hope?

riftamos said:

The rear of the “Faces” LDs state “Shown in the Original Aspect ratio 2.39”

Interesting! Thank you. I don’t have the LDs or the videotapes, I only have the 2004 DVDs and the 2011 Blu-rays.

Hello All,

There is a lot of conflicting information out there so I wanted to start this thread to see if we could nail down once and for all…

What were the ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIOS of the ORIGINAL TRILOGY movies shown in US theaters during their original runs?

For example, this IMDB webpage says 2.39:1:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

But then this IMDB webpage says “2.20 : 1 (70 mm prints), 2.35 : 1 (theatrical ratio), 2.39 : 1”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/technical

So if 2.20 was the 70mm prints, and 2.35 shown in theaters, what was 2.39 used for, and was it shown in theaters?

I was lucky enough to see the original in 1977 when I was 8 years old and today I want to recreate that experience at home as closely as I can.

Happy Discussions everyone!