"I just felt like biddiiiinnng."
That's what the winner of a screen-matched "Forrest Gump" hat likely would have said after prevailing Thursday afternoon in a Prop Store auction from London.
The winning bidder bought the hat from Forrest's famous "I just felt like running" jog across America for $76,077, a record price paid for a prop from the movie, which one the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1995.
The screen-matching for the hat wasn't disclosed in Prop Store's materials, but cllct confirmed with Resolution Photomatching the hat did match to one particular scene in which Hanks' character was crossing America for the fourth time in two years. In the scene, he is being interviewed by reporters as he ran across a bridge above the Mississippi River.
Resolution noted the matches including the weathering and discoloration on the brim and the "Bubba Gump" word mark as well as a thread hanging from the shrimp logo.
The hat was originally obtained by the film's prop master Robin L. Miller, who worked on notable Tom Hanks films, including "Forrest Gump" (1994), "Castaway" (2000) and "The Polar Express" (2004).
Movie props in the last five years have been on the rise, thanks in part to the importance of photo-matching.
The consignor of the hat made more than five times his money from a five-year hold, buying it from Prop Store in 2019 for slightly more than $15,000.
Propstore has sold many "Forrest Gump" screen-matched items before, including the Nike Cortez shoes Hanks wore at the bus stop for $30,012 (2019) and a screen-matched University of Alabama uniform and helmet from the movie sold for $16,250 (2022).
The previous record for a "Forrest Gump" prop was the $57,500 paid at Heritage Auction in March for a pair of distressed Nikes. Heritage said they were used, however, there was no photo-match.
Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis actually got a bigger cut of the movie profits from Paramount because of the running scenes. The movie studio insisted on a strict budget of $55 million, but Hanks and Zemeckis wanted the running scenes to be real. So, they paid for the travel and filming to make the six and half minute bit, and when Forrest Gump did $678 million at the box office, Hanks and Zemeckis got rewarded. For Hanks, it was a reported $65 million take.