We live in a time where piracy of movies, music, and various other forms of entertainment is oft-occurring problem. But how much does it really affect the success of those it victimizes?

It’s been officially declared that Avatar, director James Cameron‘s epic movie about humans trying to extract valuable elements from an alien planet inhabited a species known as the Na’vi, is the most pirated movie of 2010. The movie has been downloaded an astonishing 16,580,000 times…on BitTorrent alone. The previous record for downloads was 2009’s Star Trek at 10.9 million, if that tells you anything.

What might be even more shocking about this number is the lack of impact it seemed to have on the movie’s box office run. With an estimated budget of around $300 million, it was feared — though it sounds silly now — that the movie might be destined to flop, but it wasn’t long before Avatar was shattering records. Domestically, the movie brought in $760,507,625 (destroying Cameron’s other seemingly untouchable Titanic, which long sat at over $600 million), while overseas box office delivered $2,019,044,242, putting it very close to hitting $3 billion worldwide.