Google the product code 024543263739. It is the limited edition widescreen (letterboxed) version of "New Hope" with the bonus disk original. It lists the aspect ratio as 2.35
In reality, movie theatres almost never showed the entirety of an exact aspect ratio, although chances of that are better now with digital. A presentation in 1977 would more likely be a 2:1 aspect ratio, or even less at an old movie palace. Why? Because unless the projector is in exact horizontal alignment with the screen, there is keystoning of the image.
Movie palaces often had the projector three or four stories above center of the screen. A theatre can't use the type of lens used in architectural photography that eliminates keystone distortion, so the projector is tilted down steeply and the film gate aperture cut with angles, so as to give a rectangular image that doesn't bleed onto the black masking surrounding the screen. The brain then sorts out any remaining distortion to make the image "normal."
Source:
BACKSTAGE AT THE FOX 1929: PART III: TALKING PICTURE PROJECTION
The shopping center twins and early multiplexes were better, as the projectors were much lower and in alignment with the screen. With digital, there can be an electronic keystoning adjustment that mostly eliminates the issue.
An exact 2.39 aspect ratio is a fairy tale.
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