Bathroom BAFTAs
Bathrooms come in many shapes, styles and sizes. Whether, they be lavish and ginormous, or a cupboard-sized space, they all share the same base function. And this is no different on the big screen. Throughout the history of Hollywood, many famous movies have had scenes in bathrooms, with iconic moments of many a character taking place amongst the sinks and the showers.
But which are the best-rated bathroom scenes? By looking at a number of factors, including the quality of the movie, along with public interest in each of the popular scenes, we can reveal the best-rated bathroom scenes.
Top five iconic bathroom scenes
1 - Psycho (1960), bathroom movie score of 8.48/10
Perhaps the most famous shower scene of all time, the iconic shower stabbing in the Bates Motel is a memorable, and iconic movie moment. The famous scene in the shower is by far the most searched bathroom movie scene online, there are just under 100,000 annual Google searches, and over 80,000 on YouTube. For context, this scene has 75,000 more Google searches than the toilet scene in Dumb and Dumber, the second most Googled bathroom movie scene.
2 - Jurassic Park, bathroom movie score of 8.05/10
Jurassic Park is the second most popular film featuring a famous bathroom scene. During the initial T-Rex attack on the gang, one of the characters attempts to hide from the recently escaped dinosaur in a nearby bathroom, sadly without success. The movie itself was incredibly successful at the box office. When it was released it was the highest-grossing film of all time, making over $1.1 billion at the box office, today that's almost $2.3 billion. The revolutionary CGI and model work that created the dinosaurs on screen received amazing reviews and consequently, Jurassic Park won the Oscar for best visual effects.
3 - Joker, bathroom movie score of 7.59/10
Joker is the most recent movie in the top ten of the rankings, with its bathroom scene landing it in third place. In a creepy dancing scene in front of the bathroom mirror, Joaquin Phoenix's character, Joker, unsettles the audience in a teaser of the carnage the villain is about to cause. Joker performed incredibly well at the Oscars too, earning 11 nominations. Phoenix also took home best actor, and Hildur Gudnadottir was awarded the prize for the best original score (or composed film music, if you're not so fancy). There were over 10,000 Youtube searches for this scene in the last year and a further 3,720 on Google.
4 - The Godfather, bathroom movie score of 7.56/10
Similarly to Jurassic Park, the Godfather was based on the best-selling novel and had a screenplay written by the author of the book. In a pivotal moment in the story Michael Corleone (youngest son of the Godfather) makes the decision to join in his family's life of crime, he takes a gun concealed in the bathroom and uses it to shoot dead his father's attacker. The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, sitting second on the IMDb top 250 list with a score of 9.2, it has a 97% critic score, and won the best picture at the 45th Academy Awards. On top of this, it made an enormous $250 million, over 4,000% of its small $6 million budget.
5 - Pulp Fiction, bathroom movie score of 6.77/10
Pulp fiction is the fifth most popular bathroom movie scene, it achieved a score of 6.77. Tarantino's 1994 masterpiece scored well in every category; at the box office, it made over 2,500% of its $8 million budget. There are multiple bathroom scenes in Pulp Fiction, perhaps the most famous is Vincent Vega (John Travolta) waiting in the bathroom for Butch (Bruce Willis), which results in deadly consequences for Travolta's character.
Best Bathroom Movies for Every Category
The Most Searched Bathroom Scenes
1 - Psycho
Annual global Google searches: 98,200
Annual global YouTube searches: 81,600
2 - Dumb and Dumber
Annual global Google searches: 23,200
Annual global YouTube searches: 49,200
3 - Trainspotting
Annual global Google searches: 11,640
Annual global YouTube searches: 13,200
As previously mentioned Psycho is the film with by far the most searches on YouTube and Google between September 2021 and August 2022. Dumb and Dumber was the second most searched on both platforms for its outrageous toilet scene where Jeff Daniels character Harry has an explosive loosening of his bowels. A much more serious and dramatic toilet-related scene is depicted in Trainspotting when a heroin addicts attempts to recover drugs from the toilet; it was the third most searched.
Best Rated on IMDb
1 - The Godfather
IMDb movie score of 9.2/10
2 - Pulp Fiction
IMDb movie score of 8.9/10
3 - Fight Club
IMDB movie score of 8.8/10
The IMDb score is based on audience ratings out of ten on their website. The Godfather is the highest-rated film on the website, Pulp Fiction scores 8.9, and it has the second highest score on IMDB. The third highest-rated bathroom scene was in Fight Club, the cult classic by David Fincher has an 8.8 rating, in its bathroom scene the narrator and his imaginary alter ego Tyler lead their gang to beat up their enemy.
Highest Score on Rotten Tomatoes
1 - The Godfather
Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 97%
2 - Paddington
Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 97%
3 - Psycho, Monsters inc, and Apollo 13
Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 96%
Two movies with bathroom scenes all scored an incredibly high 97% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes; the Godfather, and Paddington. The family-friendly delight that Paddington is, was loved by most critics and even the late Queen Elizabeth II. It features a scene where Paddington Bear accidentally floods the bathroom.
Best Reviewed by Audience
1 - The Godfather
Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 98%
2 - Pulp Fiction
Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%
3 - American History X
Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%
4 - Fight Club
Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 96%
The audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes was similar to the IMDb score as The Godfather came out at the top, this time with a score of 98%. Two percent behind is a cluster of three films: Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, and American History X, the bathroom screen in the latter's bathroom scene is a pivotal moment, and a massive spoiler (so we'll stop there).
Highest Grossing
1 - Jurassic Park
Box office take of $2.28 billion adjusted for inflation
2 - The Godfather
Box office take of $1.77 billion adjusted for inflation
3 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Box office take of $1.47 billion adjusted for inflation
Jurassic Park made $1.11 billion in 1993, which increases to $2.28 billion adjusted for inflation. The Godfather made a comparatively low $250 million when released, but when considered with inflation since the 1972 film was released, The Godfather made $1.77 billion (today). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was the most recent of the three films, and it made $880 million twenty years ago ($1.47 billion today).
Most Profitable
1 - Saw
Budget - $1.2 million
Box office total - $162.98 million
Revenue as % of budget - 8,659%
2 - Trainspotting
Budget - $1.5 million
Box office total - $72 million
Revenue as % of budget - 4,800%
3 - The Godfather
Budget - $6 million
Box office total - $250.34 million
Revenue as % of budget - 4,172%
Whilst these three films have not broken outright records at the box office, they have made an incredible amount compared to their small production budgets. Saw's box office taking was over 8,000% of its budget, the pivotal gruesome scenes of this horror film were all set in a dilapidated bathroom. Trainspotting ranked second as it made 4,800% of its budget, the Godfather comes third making just under 4,200% of its budget.
Most Awards
1 - The Shape of Water
Major award score of 85
2 - The Godfather
Major award score of 70
3 - American Beauty
Major award score of 65
To calculate an 'awards score' for each movie with a famous bathroom scene, we looked at their performance at the academy awards. For each Oscar nomination the film received they earned 5 points, with a win being doubled to 10. However, for those terrible pictures that appeared at the Razzies (the awards for the worst Hollywood movies of the year), points were lost. A Razzie nomination gave a film -2 points, and a Razzie win resulted in -5.
The Shape of Water had the highest score with 85. The 2017 fantasy romance won 4 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Guillermo del Toro. The Godfather also won Best Picture, as well as Best Actor for Marlon Brando. American Beauty scored 65, it won 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.
Methodology
A list of films with famous bathroom scenes was compiled with the help of various articles listing top bathroom scenes in films.
We discovered how searched the scenes were on Google by using Keyword Planner to discover the total global searches between September 2021 and August 2022.
Global annual YouTube searches were found using AHrefs.
The movie score was found on IMDb.
Critic and audience ratings were found on Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie budget and box office performance were found on Box Office Mojo, with the exception of some movies which they did not have data for. These gaps were sourced from the Wikipedia page for each movie.
The adjusted for inflation box office total was discovered by using an inflation calculator. By putting the film's release year and box office total into the calculator we could find out how much the box office take was in today's money.
The percentage of its budget was calculated by dividing the box office total by the budget.
The major awards score was calculated as such: +5 points for an Oscar nomination, +10 points for an Oscar win; -2 points for a Razzie nomination, and -5 points for a Razzie win.
We then gave each film a normalised score out of 10 for each factor before taking an average of these scores.