Planet Hollywood

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Planet Hollywood
Company typePublic
IndustryTheme restaurant
FoundedOctober 22 1991 in New York (USA)
HeadquartersOrlando, Florida
Key people
Robert Earl, Founder
Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Baron Montague of Oxford, financial backers
Websiteplanethollywood.com
Planet Hollywood at night, Downtown Disney, Florida, USA.
Planet Hollywood Niagara Falls, Ontario

Planet Hollywood, a theme restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood, was launched in New York on October 22, 1991, with the backing of Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and in the past, Arnold Schwarzenegger who has since sold his part.

History

It was a brainchild of Robert Earl, former president of Hard Rock Cafe. Planet Hollywoods were modeled after the Hard Rock formula, so closely in fact that a lawsuit ensued and awarded the Hard Rock millions in damages. Earl recruited many former Hard Rock veterans to open new PH stores. Movie star "owners" received stock options at rock bottom price in exchange for their endorsement, thus they could be billed as legal owners.

According to www.barishfund.com, Planet Hollywood was founded, marketed and branded by Keith Barish, who also served as its Chairman. He left Planet Hollywood in 1998.

In 1994 Planet Hollywood founded the Official All Star Café sports-themed restaurant chain.

In 1997 Planet Hollywood entered a joint partnership with AMC Theaters to develop Planet Movies by AMC.

In 1998 Planet Hollywood entered the ice cream business when it launched Cool Planet, the business was scrapped later that year.

In April 1996, Planet Hollywood went public. The company has gone bankrupt twice. The company's share price reached all time high of $32 on the first day of trading and went down to less than $1 by 1999. When Planet Hollywood went international, stores opened up in major cities such as Rome, Paris, Athens, Sydney, Auckland, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, London, Dublin, Belfast, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Montreal, Toronto, Jakarta, Bali and other cities throughout the world. Now, however, only Paris, Tokyo and London and New York City have a Planet Hollywood. Initially closing only nine American locations abruptly in August 1999 in Houston, Chicago, Gurnee Mills, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Costa Mesa, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Aspen, nearly 100 stores have closed worldwide since leaving fewer than 20 in the world currently. There was a planned new location in Boston that was partially built in 1999 and never even opened.

Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in early 2000.[1] Schwarzenegger said the company had not had the success he had hoped for, claiming he wanted to focus his attention on "new US global business ventures" and his movie career.[1]

Casinos

Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas had its grand opening the weekend of November 16 2007. A deal has been signed for the hotel to be operated by Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide. [2]

In addition, Planet Hollywood has partnered with Westgate Resorts on the construction of the new The Planet Hollywood Towers by Westgate, the world's first vacation ownership resort directly connected to a major resort hotel and casino complex. The groundbreaking took place on January 19 2006. The 52-story luxury vacation ownership and condominium tower will be located on the corner of Harmon Avenue and Audrie Lane and will include over 1,200 units ranging in size from one to four bedrooms. The top four stories will comprise 28 luxury condominiums ranging in size from 4,000 square feet (372 m²) to 10,000 square feet (929 m²). Prices on the top floors start at US$4 million. The project is scheduled to be completed in early 2009.

Restaurants

United States

International

Former Locations

United States

International

Merchandise stores

References

  1. ^ a b "Arnold leaves planet". schwarenegger.com. 2000-01-25. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
  2. ^ Savor Those Curly Fries: Planet Hollywood Is Back (Again) - New York Times
  3. ^ "FBI joins Planet Hollywood inquiry". BBC News. 1998-08-26. Retrieved 2007-12-12.

External links