Though recent years have given us video copies of this film in a ridiculous letterboxed 2.76:1 aspect ratio, that's not how the producers expected the film to be seen in the vast majority of theatres. This is a circa 1960 Technicolor dye transfer print matted to yield a 2.5:1 image inside the standard 2.35:1 frame. One of the virtues claimed for MGM Camera 65 / Ultra Panavision was that 35mm reduction copies could be made without sacrificing vertical information, as is the case with flat 65mm photography. While the difference in image height might be slight, there are moments in Ben-Hur when an important piece of business happens at the very bottom of the frame, information lost in the incorrectly made video transfers.