What screen size are you projecting onto? Going from 1080p on a 55" screen to the same on a 115" projection screen was a huge step up for me, particularly given that it cost no more than buying a 65" TV in 2014. A lot of that was stepping up to a screen size where I saw the full benefit of 1080p.
Mostly 93", occasionally 104" - 48x96 sheet of Formica in whatever colour was being recommended a decade or so ago. A 16:9 image only covers about 80" wide (93" diagonal) and zoomed-in 2.35:1 only covers about 41" tall (104").
I haven't gotten around to trimming and framing it because I haven't decided whether I'm likely to keep zooming in the 2.35 movies to use full width (poor man's constant area projection) or whether I'm more likely to get lazy and run everything with the 80" width, getting a bit more brightness in exchange for a bit less size.
Every summer (when it stays light long enough to interfere with movie watching) I figure I'll trim it to 80" wide and be done, but then winter comes around, it gets dark at 4pm, and so even the zoomed-in 2.35's are sufficiently bright.
I guess a new projector could give me more brightness *and* 1080p. I see what you did there
