History
Planet Hollywood was the brainchild of Robert Earl, former President and CEO of Hard Rock Cafe and Keith Barish, financier, real estate developer and film producer (Sophie’s Choice, The Fugitive, Running Man, Nine ½ weeks, Monster Squad). Planet Hollywoods were modeled after the Hard Rock formula. 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.
In 1994, Planet Hollywood founded the Official All Star Café sports-themed restaurant chain. In April 1996, Planet Hollywood went public. 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. The company has gone bankrupt twice. Nearly 100 stores have closed worldwide, leaving about 15 Planet Hollywood restaurants currently open.
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. Schwarzenegger severed his financial ties with the business in early 2000. Schwarzenegger said the company had not had the success he had hoped for, claiming he wanted to focus his attention on "new U.S. and global business ventures" and his movie career.
Marvel Mania Restaurant opened on February 18, 1998 near Universal Studios, California with Marvel being a co-owner with Universal Studios Hollywood and Planet Hollywood. However, Planet Hollywood had financial problems due to expanding too quickly and had to close Marvel Mania.
Read more about this topic: Planet Hollywood
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history is always the same the product is always different and the history interests more than the product. More, that is, more. Yes. But if the product was not different the history which is the same would not be more interesting.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)