Most common sound effect in films

For the 1951 movie Distant Drums, a series of six short sound recordings was made in post-production to accompany the visuals of a soldier being bitten by an alligator and dragged into a stream. The scream effect was archived by Warner Bros. and used exclusively by the studio in a series of movies, including Them! (USA 1954), The Sea Chase (USA 1955) and A Star is Born (USA 1954) before being picked up by sound effects editor Ben Burtt (USA). Burtt reportedly dubbed it the "Wilhelm Scream" after a character in The Charge at Feather River (USA 1953), and used it in, among others, Star Wars (USA 1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (USA 1981). Since then, the scream has been adopted by countless sound engineers and used in films such as Batman Returns (USA,UK 1992), Planet of the Apes (USA 2001), Madagascar (USA 2005) and, most recently, Norbit (USA 2007). To date, it has featured in at least 133 movies, as well as in computer games and themepark rides.

A close second is a crashing thunder effect known as "Castle Thunder", recognized immediately by horror-movie fans as the clap of thunder used in Frankenstein (USA 1931).