Food & Beverage

Jack in the Box Franchise

Name: Jack in the Box Franchise
Brand: Jack in the Box

A West Coast-rooted quick-service burger chain now franchised through Different Rules, LLC, a Delaware entity organized in 2018 that took over all U.S. Jack in the Box franchise agreements from parent Jack in the Box Inc. in a July 2019 securitization transaction (JIB continues to manage day-to-day franchising, marketing and real estate on Different Rules' behalf). Franchised unit count was roughly flat in 2023-2024 before a sharp 55-unit net decline in 2025 (2,040 to 1,985), while company-owned units grew slightly (146 to 151).

Losing locationsFounded 2018HQ: San Diego, CA

Disclosed in the FDD's litigation section (Item 3)

Item 3 discloses several active, unresolved franchisee disputes as of this filing: a Washington franchisee (AJP/NHG, filed March 2025) alleging wrongful termination and economic duress after the company cross-defaulted 39 franchise agreements over an unauthorized restaurant closure; a Texas franchisee (Gulf Coast Jacks, filed December 2025) alleging cannibalization from nearby new-restaurant approvals and other lease/vendor breaches; and a since-resolved Texas jury verdict (Marilyn Garner trustee case) that initially awarded $8 million against the company before being overturned post-trial and affirmed on appeal in the company's favor in October 2025. These are allegations in unresolved or since-reversed cases, not proven findings against the current franchisor.

Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from Jack in the Box's own filing.

What it costs to open

From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.

Franchise fee

$50,000

Total to open

$1,909,500–$4,041,500

Ongoing royalty

5% of gross sales

What you'd actually spend, over time

The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.

Your estimated annual revenue

Defaulted to a rough food & beverage industry average, not a figure from Jack in the Box's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.

Years of ownership

Total cost of ownership over 5 years

$2,159,500 – $4,291,500

Startup investment

$1,909,500–$4,041,500

Royalty per year (5%)

$50,000

Total royalty, 5yr

$250,000

When would you break even?

Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. Jack in the Box's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical food & beverage profit margin (~8%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.

Estimated profit margin (% of revenue)

%≈ $80,000/year

Defaulted to a general food & beverage industry benchmark, not a figure from Jack in the Box's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.

At that profit, you'd break even in about

23.9–50.5 years

Weigh that payback period against what you already know: Jack in the Box is currently losing locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.

Is Jack in the Box actually growing?

Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:

Locations opened vs. closed, by year

Shrinking

From Item 20 of Jack in the Box's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.

-3

-55

202320242025

Year	Franchised units, start	Franchised units, end	Net change
2023	2,034	2,043	+9
2024	2,043	2,040	-3
2025	2,040	1,985	-55

Most recent year (2025): lost 55 franchised units, ending the year at 1,985 total.

What you're actually signing up for

The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.

Training & ongoing support (Item 11)

Item 11: JIB (acting as Manager on the franchisor's behalf) must approve or disapprove a proposed Development site within 90 days, provides prototypical building plans once a ground-up site is approved, but otherwise leaves site-finding, financing, design and construction entirely to the franchisee/developer.

Territory protection (Item 12)

Item 12: franchises are granted for a specific restaurant location only, with no general exclusive territory; multi-unit Developers can get a protected 1-mile radius around defined "market points," but even then the company keeps the right to continue operating or franchise any restaurant that already existed in that area before the agreement.

Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)

Item 17: 20-year initial term with no contractual right of renewal -- at term-end the company may, at its sole discretion, offer a new "rewrite" agreement (potentially for a shorter term and on materially different conditions, including a new franchise fee and building upgrades) based on the franchisee's performance history.

How Jack in the Box compares to other Food & Beverage franchises

Across the 35 food & beverage franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $843,866–$2,063,296, with royalties averaging around 5.6% of gross sales (based on the 32 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).

Dave's Hot Chicken

$617,800–$2,170,000 · 6% royalty

Slim Chickens

$1,188,900–$4,944,000 · 5% royalty

Ziggi's Coffee

$315,830–$2,093,361 · 6% royalty

Crumbl

$848,566–$1,472,533 · 8% royalty

Little Caesars

$376,500–$1,769,200 · 6% royalty

Jamba

$480,850–$941,300 · 6% royalty

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

$300,000–$720,500 · 6% royalty

Playa Bowls

$188,675–$636,458 · 6% royalty

Kona Ice

$114,730–$228,601 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Firehouse Subs

$166,671–$950,351 · 6% royalty

Wingstop

$310,400–$1,048,500 · 6% royalty

Jersey Mike's Subs

$436,176–$1,162,228 · 6.5% royalty

Dunkin'

$532,400–$1,832,500 · 5.9% royalty

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

$1,222,045–$3,923,245 · 5% royalty

Del Taco

$1,461,200–$3,313,500 · 5% royalty

Blaze Pizza

$757,000–$1,297,100 · 5% royalty

Church's Texas Chicken

$1,202,400–$1,886,300 · 5% royalty

MOD Pizza

$924,732–$1,220,633 · 5% royalty

Twin Peaks

$2,959,000–$5,734,000 · 5% royalty

McDonald's

$1,470,500–$2,642,000 · 5% royalty

Subway

$263,000–$630,000 · 8% royalty

Taco Bell

$1,859,750–$4,312,200 · 5.5% royalty

Domino's Pizza

$231,450–$743,500 · 5.5% royalty

KFC

$2,107,575–$4,155,000 · 5% royalty

Burger King

$2,039,200–$4,730,600 · 4.5% royalty

Chick-fil-A

$317,521–$3,463,155 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Penn Station

$507,500–$858,750 · non-%-of-revenue royalty

Nekter Juice Bar

$243,155–$647,160 · 6% royalty

Jimmy John's

$366,200–$733,500 · 6% royalty

Sonic Drive-In

$1,485,200–$2,522,900 · 5% royalty

Papa John's

$281,485–$890,267 · 5% royalty

Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs

$238,982–$697,322 · 5.5% royalty

Wendy's

$1,523,957–$2,992,000 · 4% royalty

Marco's Pizza

$286,477–$811,186 · 5.5% royalty

Keep going

Jack in the Box and Taco Bell are both food & beverage franchises; Taco Bell's total investment starts about $49,750 lower than Jack in the Box's. Taco Bell Franchise
Jack in the Box and Burger King are both food & beverage franchises; Jack in the Box's total investment starts about $129,700 lower than Burger King's. Burger King Franchise

Where this came from: California DFPI Registration, App ID APP00004437, filed 3/19/2026, effective 4/13/2026. FDD issued March 2026. Item 5/6: standard Initial Franchise Fee is $50,000 (pro-rated for shorter terms; $25,000 for nontraditional locations); royalty is 5% of Gross Sales, though the FDD discloses franchisees actually pay anywhere from 0%-12.5% under negotiated exceptions (new markets, incentive programs, litigation settlements); Marketing Fee is a separate 5% of Gross Sales (increases capped at 0.5% per 24 months). Item 7: the correct single-unit TOTAL for a prototypical restaurant is $1,909,500-$4,041,500 (excluding land) -- the FDD's headline $3,820,000-$8,088,000 figure is a 2-restaurant Development Agreement total (2x the single-unit range minus one franchise fee plus development fees), a genuine multi-unit-range parser trap. Item 20 Table 1 franchised and company-owned outlets. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-03-19. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.

If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.