Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 640481
Applebee's franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Applebee's cost $3,870,004 to $5,822,933 in the 2026 FDD; the median unit sold $2,822,904 in the franchisor's 2024-12-30 to 2025-12-28 figures; 7.2% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Applebee's Franchisor LLC. FDD issued 2026-03-27, amended 2026-04-07. Fiscal year end 2025-12-28. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-03.
What a unit costs to open
Tower II prototype, the newest; low end is a 169-seat version and high end a 225-seat version with add-ons; includes land and building costs where purchased.
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $35,000 | Item 5, p. 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 4% of Gross Sales, monthly (the franchisor may increase it) | Item 6, p. 9 |
| Advertising fund | National Advertising Fund currently 4.25% of Gross Sales | Item 6, p. 9 |
per Restaurant opened under a Development Agreement; a $15,000 applicant's fee may also apply.
What a unit sells
Item 19 is optional and is the franchisor's own representation. It is shown here as filed, with the franchisor's measure, sample and period, and nothing is estimated where it is missing.
| Measure | annualized gross sales, traditional franchised restaurants, fiscal 2025 (Chart 1, Total row) | |
|---|---|---|
| Sample | 1,351 units: 1,351 traditional franchised restaurants active at 2025-12-28, excluding four express concepts, restaurants temporarily closed during the year and 24 dual-branded restaurants; also shown by region (Midwest, Northeast, South, West) | |
| Period | 2024-12-30 to 2025-12-28 | |
| High / low | $10,150,710 / $1,053,693 | |
Revenue to investment
Formula: Item 19 Total median / Item 7 Tower II prototype total (midpoint, low, high). A ratio of 1.00 means one year of median unit revenue equals the investment; it says nothing about profit.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 1,575 | 1,542 | 1,460 |
| Opened | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| Terminated | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Not renewed | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 47 | 12 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 32 | 29 | 33 |
| End of year | 1,542 | 1,460 | 1,416 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 0 | 47 | 59 |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 48; Table 3 totals p. 56.
Closures are the franchisor's Item 20 counts of units terminated, not renewed, or ceased for other reasons, summed over 2023–2025 and divided by franchised units at the start of 2023. Units the franchisor reacquired are not closures. This is an Item 20 count, not a failure rate.
Table 1A, traditional venues; the 2025 total end of 1,475 carries a footnote.
all three rows sum; 59 restaurants were reacquired by the franchisor in 2024-2025, which is where the company-owned count comes from.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Applebee's Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-03-27 and amended 2026-04-07, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 640481, registry record). The PDF is the franchisor's and is not hosted here; the item and page beside each figure is where to check it. Item 7 and Item 20 tables were read cell by cell; Item 19 was read by hand; each Item 20 year was checked to sum (start + opened − exits = end) before it was recorded.
Traditional venue restaurants; the five non-traditional venue locations (Table 1B) are a separate table and are not in the counts below..
Informational only, not professional, legal or investment advice. Unitnomics computes from the filing and does not advise on, rank, or refer to any franchise. Last reviewed: November 2026.