Image titles get HTML Entitified when using theme_image_formatter()

  $vars = array(
    'item' => array(
      'uri' => $uri,
      'alt' => html_entity_decode($caption),
      'title' => html_entity_decode($caption),
    ),
    'image_style' => $size,
  );

  $markup .= '<a href="'. file_create_url($uri) .'?title='. $caption .'" class="colorbox-load" rel="gallery">' . theme_image_formatter($vars) . '</a>';

One would expect parenthesis and similar characterts to be as they should, instead running the vars through the theme image formatters will make the title field have entities (which arent decoded by browsers when hovering over an image).