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The Bubba-Gump Shrimp Company seafood restaurant chain inspired by the movie 'Forrest Gump' struck most people as a quick cash-in that also wouldn’t amount to much. But much like Forrest Gump, this chain really surprised, man! Have you ever eaten at one?
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The 1994 feature film Forrest Gump was about a guy who came from humble beginnings to achieve
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extremely unlikely success in just about every area of life. Similarly, the Bubba Gump Shrimp
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Company seafood restaurant chain, inspired by the movie, struck most people as a quick cash-in
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that also wouldn't amount to much. Today, we're going to take a look at how Bubba Gump Shrimp
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worked when it absolutely should have failed. Inspired by a story about savants on the television news magazine show 60 Minutes
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author Winston Groom sat down at his typewriter and in just six weeks
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cranked out the first draft of his 1986 novel, Forrest Gump. The book got mixed reviews, and it didn't sell all that great
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But Paramount Pictures still decided to make it into a movie. But in both versions, Forrest winds up founding a seafood corporation called
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The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which is named after himself and his friend Benjamin Buford Bubba Blue
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There's a good chance the name Bubba Gump Shrimp Company will sound familiar to you
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Because since 1996, it's also been the name of a chain of real-life seafood restaurants
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The tale of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company begins with a guy who wanted to make some money
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That guy was entrepreneur Anthony Zalesi. And in 1995, he was looking for a way to change the fortunes of his floundering seafood company
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which was called Meridian Products Luckily for Zolezzi 1995 also happened to be the year he went to see Forrest Gump It occurred to him that the hit film had already made a household name out of the fictional brand
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Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, and if he could sell his products under that name, he'd have an edge
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on the competition. To that end, Zolezzi contacted Paramount Pictures, the distributor of the film
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and licensed the name for use on his seafood. The first Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant
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opened its doors in Monterey, California's Cannery Row in 1996. At the time, critics thought it was a stupid idea
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But as Forrest says... Stupid is, stupid does, sir. And as it turns out, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company did just fine
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In fact, it was a huge success. According to its own website, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company is
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a casual family restaurant with a theme based on Forrest Gump's life
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philosophy, and love of shrimp. That being the case, each restaurant is filled with all sorts of Forrest Gump-related decorations and exhibits
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The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company is something of an anomaly. Normally, the fees associated with licensing a major piece of intellectual property are generally too steep to be profitable
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But the name recognition generated by the film Forrest Gump and the unusual circumstances of its licensing may have just been enough to give Bubba Gump the edge on its competitors
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The Bubblegum Shrimp Company is still afloat with locations in 10 different U.S. states
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as well as in Canada, England, China, Japan, Mexico, Bali, and Qatar
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In other words, the shrimp aren't drying up anytime soon. And that's all we have to say about that
#Movies
#Hospitality Industry
#Restaurants