While a lot of us were spending time away from our computers to celebrate the New Year, something phenomenal has been happening. Avatar has been making money at a rate pretty much no one has seen since Titanic, and today, 17 days after its release, has surpassed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, the fastest any film has ever reached that mark.

Avatar is now the fourth-highest grossing movie worldwide of all time, and having made $68 million domestically over the weekend, boasts the best-ever domestic third weekend, well ahead of previous record holder Spider-Man. Plenty more records are likely to fall: Avatar is just $50 million behind 2009's highest grosser Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and will doubtlessly pass that film soon. There's plenty of reason to believe that it could surpass The Dark Knight's $533.3 million domestic haul, making it the second-highest grossing movie of all time domestically... behind only Titanic.

For fans of the movie, like myself, this is amazing news, proof that exciting and innovative filmmaking can still succeed, and an original story can still bring in audiences accustomed to movies based on superheroes and toys. THR has a round-up of Avatar's current box office success, including the next domestic box office record to surpass-- Star Wars's $461 million (adjusted for inflation). That might just be the next stepping stone on the way toward challenging Titanic, and making Cameron the undisputed king of the world.