<P> The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Restaurant and Market is an American seafood restaurant chain inspired by the 1994 film Forrest Gump . As of July 2015, forty Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants operate worldwide . Twenty - nine of these locations are in the United States, four are in Mexico, three are in Malaysia, and one each in London, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Marianas and the Philippines . The company is based in Houston, Texas, and has been a division of Landry's Restaurants since 2010 . </P> <P> The first Bubba Gump restaurant opened in 1996 in Monterey, California by Viacom Consumer Products . That firm's parent company, Viacom, is owner of Paramount Pictures, the distributor of Forrest Gump, and also owns the Rusty Pelican restaurant chain . The Bubba Gump restaurant is named after the film's characters Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue and Forrest Gump . In the film, Bubba suggested getting in the shrimping business and, ultimately, Forrest pursued the idea after Bubba's death in the Vietnam War . </P> <P> In 1995, Paramount Pictures approached Rusty Pelican Restaurants Inc. with a desire to create a restaurant based on a theme from Paramount's 1994 film Forrest Gump . The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. was created as a result . Within a year the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. created a concept idea for the restaurant chain which was then licensed by Paramount Licensing, Inc . In 1996, the first Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant was opened in Monterey, California; its success led to its franchising on an international scale . </P> <P> In November 2010, Landry's, Inc. acquired Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. for an undisclosed amount . The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. purchase also included a lone Rusty Pelican in Newport Beach, California . </P>

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