When TRON was released in July of 1982 it was considered groundbreaking in its use of computer generated imagery (CGI). In his original review of TRON in the Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert (1982) called it “…a dazzling movie from Walt Disney in which computers have been used to make themselves romantic and glamorous.” He also added that, “In an age of amazing special effects, TRON is a state-of-the-art movie.” By comparing the way that CGI is used in a movie to its rank based on total gross sales it will show that CGI movies have steadily become more popular and dominate in gross sales since TRON was released.
TRON was created by Steven Lisberger in 1976 when he came up with the idea for what he called a neon warrior at his own design studio in California. He also took inspiration from the original game of Pong. In an interview almost two decades later Lisberger said, “And what happened was, I saw Pong, and I said, well, that's the arena for him.” (Lisberger, 2010). This statement was in reference to what would become the arena duel where discs of light are hurled at their opponent. Along with creating TRON he wrote the script and directed the movie. Lisberger was also the producer of TRON: Legacy which was released in December of 2010.
The movie centers around Kevin Flynn who finds himself transported inside of a circuit board to the world within. In this computer world when programs are no longer needed they are forced to fight other obsolete programs in arena battles to the deletion. Flynn is thought to be a program but it is discovered that he is a mythical user. He befriends a couple of programs and together they escape and have to travel to the portal back to the real world without being captured along with destroying the MCP (Master Control Program) on their way out.

TRON is considered by many as one of the pioneers of CGI usage in movies. Unlike prior movies (Star Wars, Superman, Black Hole) where CGI was used to enhance portions of the scenes, which TRON does also, TRON takes it a step further being the first movie feature full scenes that are 100% computer generated, like many portions of the light cycle battle. There are over 15 minutes of film that are 100% CGI.
It was disqualified for the 1982 Academy Award for Visual Effects because it was considered cheating to have used CGI in such an extensive way. It wasn’t until 1989 when The Abyss was awarded the Oscar for Visual Effects did a movie with extensive CGI use win. Now it is commonplace.
As the acceptance of computer generated movies along with the technology started to grow movies containing large amounts of CGI started to gain wider acceptance. This can be shown by looking at what rank a movie is based on the total gross per year. TRON was listed at number 22 in 1982. That same year E.T. was number one and it had minimal work. The Abyss only managed to be 24th in 1989 and it won the Oscar. Not until Jurassic Park in 1993 was there a movie that used massive amounts of CGI and was number one in gross sales, which also happened to win the Visual Effects Oscar. Since then there have been very few exceptions to the number one movie not containing a lot of CGI, or in the case of Toy Story in 1995 being 100% CGI.
As movie making continues to progress and the line between real and computer blurs, the real challenge will be whether we will be able to tell the difference. Now that movies with CGI are main stream and accepted as part of movie going will we see this continued dominance by CGI movies or will CGI usage slowdown in favor of more traditional film making?

References
Ebert, R. (January 1, 1982). TRON. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on April 9, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/tron-1982
Lambie, R. (December 2, 2010). Interview: Justin Springer and Steven Lisberger, co-producers of Tron: Legacy. Retrieved on April 4, 2013. Retrieved from http://archive.is/20120915/http://www.denofgeek.com/Tron/687709/interview_justin_spring er_a nd_steven_lisberger_coproducers_of_tron_legacy.html
Domestic Grosses (n.d.) Retrieved on April 8, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1993&view=releasedate&view2=domestic &sort=gross&order=DESC&&p=.htm.
Wikipedia. (2013, March 28). Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Visual_Effects