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On the day when James Cameron’s Avatar finally eclipses the last of Titanic‘s major box office records, all of the talk is not of the past — the 1997 run that made James Cameron “King of the World,” but of the future. According to Fox chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch (speaking on an earnings call Tuesday), he is in “very early talks” with director James Cameron about greenlighting an Avatar sequel. The director has expressed many times over the past few months that he does have more material, and that a sequel is possible.

However, even though both sides appear to be packing for another trip to Pandora, Murdoch warned that we should not hold our breath for an early one. As in, it could very well take a few years to get another Avatar movie in the can. As our good friends at /Film point out, even if Avatar 2 went into pre-production today, we wouldn’t see the final product until about 2013, at the very earliest.

This all comes as Avatar takes its seat as the highest grossing film of all-time, no matter how you slice it. Box Office Mojo is reporting today that Avatar earned $2.68 million on Tuesday, pushing it just passed Titanic‘s all-time domestic gross record. Here now, is where they sit (domestically):

1. Avatar (2009) – $601,141,551
2. Titanic (1997) – $600,788,188
3. The Dark Knight (2008) – $533,345,358

Avatar still sits at #21 on the all-time box office charts when adjusted for inflation, but I’m not exactly sure anyone cares about that. The fact is that 2009 James Cameron has defeated 1997 James Cameron on all levels, and that Avatar is now the highest grossing movie of all-time, domestic, foreign and cumulative. It is also, for the record, the highest grossing movie featuring a Paraplegic or Quadriplegic character. Though, it took out Million Dollar Baby ($100 million) some time ago, with little fanfare from the Paraplegic community.