Franchises · 2026 FDD · Wisconsin DFI filing 641298
Golden Corral franchise cost, unit revenue and closures
Opening a Golden Corral cost $3,631,328 to $4,508,130 in the 2026 FDD; the franchisor's revenue disclosure has no single unit figure; 7.3% of franchised units closed over three years.
Franchisor: Golden Corral Franchising Systems, Inc.. FDD issued 2026-04-27. Fiscal year end 2025-12-31. Figures re-found on the cited page 2026-11-03.
What a unit costs to open
first of five building models, not including land and site work; others range from $1,475,950 to $2,853,130 (conversion of an existing building, p.20) up to $4,147,296 to $6,162,930 (p.18).
What a unit pays the franchisor
| Initial franchise fee | $50,000 | Item 5, p. 6 |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 4% of Gross Sales, weekly | Item 6, p. 7 |
| Advertising fund | Advertising 2% to 6% of Gross Sales (currently 2.4%) | Item 6, p. 7 |
a $20,000 development fee per restaurant is credited against it; $15,000 under one incentive.
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.
Item 19 present, no single unit figure. average gross sales, expenses and operating income for 2025, for 315 franchised restaurants split into Metro (263), Small market (50) and Non-Traditional (2) categories; no all-restaurant row (Item 19, p. 63, 64, 65).
Sample: franchised restaurants reporting for 2025 (excludes 7 that left the system, 1 open under 6 months and 27 that had not reported); Metro average $4,923,317 and median $4,659,201; Small average $3,698,944 and median $3,530,953. Period: 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31.
Revenue to investment
Undefined: Item 19 is split by market type with no combined figure.
How many units open and close
| Franchised units | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of year | 358 | 352 | 348 |
| Opened | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Terminated | 7 | 3 | 6 |
| Not renewed | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ceased, other reasons | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| End of year | 352 | 348 | 344 |
| Company-owned, end of year | 3 | — | — |
Item 20, Table 1 p. 74; Table 3 totals p. 81.
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.
company-owned and total rows for 2024 and 2025 not captured in this pass.
Source and method
Every figure above comes from the Golden Corral Franchise Disclosure Document issued 2026-04-27, as filed with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (filing 641298, 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.
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.