Paramount Pictures, pumped up on DreamWorks steroids, crossed the billion mark in domestic ticket sales Monday.

With the muscular, record-setting ""Transformers"" -- which grossed 5.4 million during its first week of release -- pushing the studio over the top, Paramount said Wednesday that it hit the billion mark in 189 days, the earliest any studio has reached that benchmark in a calendar year.

The year is well on its way to becoming the studio's highest-grossing year since 1998, when, riding the success of ""Titanic,"" it collected a domestic tally of .046 billion, a level the studio expects to surpass this weekend.

The fastest-to- billion record had been held by Sony Pictures, which, thanks in part to the original ""Spider-Man,"" hit that mark July 11, 2002. Paramount -- which beat that record by two days, grossing billion on July 9 -- did benefit from the fact that the cost of ticket prices has escalated during the past five years.

In the process, Paramount also reclaimed the position of the No. 1 studio in terms of market share. It previously held that distinction from April 21 through May 3 but was forced to surrender the title to Sony when ""Spider-Man 3"" hit theaters in early May.

Paramount's biggest-grossing release to date is DreamWorks Animation's ""Shrek the Third,"" which has collected 7 million domestically since its May 18 release. Other titles that have contributed to the surge include the Paramount/DreamWorks co-production ""Transformers,"" whose gross currently is more than 3 million; the DreamWorks/MTV Films comedy ""Blades of Glory"" (8.2 million); the DreamWorks comedy ""Norbit"" (.4 million); and the DreamWorks teen thriller ""Disturbia"" (.3 million).

""Dreamgirls,"" the late-2006 DreamWorks/Paramount co-production, also contributed to the till, collecting most of its 3.4 million tally in 2007."