Thanks for all of the information.

Also, to clarify, I didn't mean that I thought that there should only be one widescreen aspect ratio. I only asked because Hollywood "settled" on the 1.37:1 Academy ratio somewhat early on, and wondered why they didn't do the same after widescreen films were introduced.

Anyway, thanks again for all of the information.

like most things that are wrong in this world, it can all be traced back to Obama.

The "Academy ratio" was basically deciding on how to fit the optical soundtrack onto the film.

Prior to that, the silent film era had basically standardized on the 4:3 35mm film, partially because that was the first type of film used, and everyone just copied it. Once sound was added, they had to figure out how to "shrink" the image area to fit the optical soundtrack on the side. I think they settled on 1.37:1 because it was "close enough" to 1.33:1 so it would fit the existing screens. And existing projectors could be modified once and play all of the sound pictures.

With widescreen, it was a conscious effort to "break" from the standard, while still being compatible with existing projectors. As long as a projector could be easily converted between the widescreen ratios and Academy, there was no reason for a standard.