Food & Beverage · registry year 2024 · HQ IL
McDonald's Franchise
A McDonald's Corp brand operating in the food & beverage sector, franchising since 1953. According to the 2024 FDD filing for McDonald's, this is an editorial comparison record; it does not reproduce the brand's current FDD.
- $1.0M – $2.2M
- Initial investment · Higher entry cost
- 4.0%
- Royalty rate · Below-average royalty
- 40,275
- Total locations · Large network
- $2.9M
- Avg unit revenue · Above-average unit revenue
FDD outlay schedule
Registry mcdonald-s McDonald's
McDonald's needs $1.0M–$2.2M to open and charges a 4.0% royalty - an entry cost above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- LO $1.0M
- HI $2.2M
- FEE $45K
- ROY 4.0%
- UNT 40,275
- I19 Disclosed
- INV# #32/223
- UNT# #2/223
Same-sector Item 7 peers
Nearest Item 7 peer: Perkins Restaurant & Bakery ($1.0M)
Same-sector Item 7 neighbourhood for McDonald's (registry year 2024). Listed lows only - not a profit, cost-of-living, or suitability claim. Verify the current FDD before relying on these figures. How we place brands →
Franchise Opportunity Health Score
How healthy and transparent McDonald's's franchise system looks, from 2 of 2 tracked dimensions.
- Network momentum 0.6% net unit growth (YoY) 27/100 · F
- Financial disclosure Item 19 disclosed 100/100 · A
Benchmarked against the 223-brand tracked corpus (p10-p90 range per dimension); a higher score means a growing unit count and a disclosed Item 19. See how we place brands.
Where McDonald's's investment ranks nationally
McDonald's's listed Item 7 low of $1.0M against every one of the 218 tracked franchise brands with a disclosed initial investment. Listed figures only, verify in the current FDD before relying on them.
McDonald's vs all tracked franchise brands by listed investment
Initial investment low (FDD Item 7), PlainFranchise brand corpus
$1,008,000 Higher than most higher than 85% of 218 franchise brands
Franchise brands, banded by listed Item 7 low
Each bar is a $0.001K-wide band; taller bars hold more franchise brands. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainFranchise editorial comparison registry · 2024-12-31
Investment Overview
- Franchise Fee
- $45K
- Ad Fund Rate
- 4.0%
Revenue Data (Item 19)
- Average Revenue
- $2.9M
- gross revenue per location
* Revenue figures are gross revenue (sales), not profit. This registry does not report operating costs or profit.
Network Size & Growth
Net Growth Rate
Year-over-year unit change
950 locations closed in the last reporting year
Quick Facts
- Sector
- Food & Beverage
- Subsector
- quick service restaurant
- Founded
- 1940
- Franchising Since
- 1953
- Headquarters
- IL
- FDD Year
- 2024
- Item 19
- Disclosed
Important Notice · McDonald's
This McDonald's page is a registry comparison record, not a verified FDD extract. It does not establish suitability, operating costs, profitability, or expected results for McDonald's.
Large-network capital outlay for McDonald's
Signature read: 40,275 locations · Item 7 low $1.0M
McDonald's, a McDonald's Corp franchise, has been franchising since 1953 - 13 years after the concept was founded in 1940 , currently with 40,275 total locations (39,747 franchised, 528 company-owned; 99% of the recorded total is franchised) in the food & beverage sector, headquartered in IL. The registry records a total initial investment between $1.0M and $2.2M, recorded as a low-to-high range in the registry. The registry records a separate franchise-fee field of $45K and does not list every Item 7 component in this summary.
Ongoing royalties run 4.0% of gross sales; the registry also records a 4.0% advertising-fund field, for a 8.0% arithmetic total. McDonald's has a recorded Item 19 financial-performance field; Item 19 disclosure is voluntary under the FTC Franchise Rule. The reported average gross revenue per location is $2.9M; multiplying the reported average by the listed royalty rate gives $116K as an arithmetic illustration only. Revenue is distinct from profit, and the registry does not provide a complete operating-cost record.
Network momentum is currently positive: McDonald's added units at a 0.6% net rate year-over-year (1200 openings, 950 closures). The count describes the latest reported period only; the underlying Item 20 tables provide the fuller disclosure context.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What are the ongoing fees for a McDonald's franchise?
Related reading for McDonald's: Understanding FDDs , McDonald's lists Item 19 revenue here, how Item 19 fits the 23-item FDD.
Snapshot uses the registry's listed Item 7 initial-investment low and Item 20 location-count fields. It is a descriptive comparison, not a ranking or investment recommendation.
How McDonald's's Item 7 and Item 19 fields are labeled (expand)
Nationwide brands with similar investment or network size
Two data-derived peer sets for McDonald's , both outside HQ state IL : nearest Item 7 lows and nearest total-location counts, not the same-sector roster below.
Similar listed investment
Nearest Item 7 lows ($1.0M here).
Similar network size
Nearest total location counts (40,275 here).
What to do with this
McDonald's at a glance, drawn from the same figures above.
- McDonald's scores 64/100 (D) on our composite opportunity read, combining net unit growth and Item 19 financial-disclosure transparency.
- Its $1.0M – $2.2M entry cost runs above the typical food & beverage franchise.
- Ranks #32 of 223 listed franchises by initial investment. See rankings
- Perkins Restaurant & Bakery sits at a comparable investment level ($1.0M) in the same sector. Compare
Editorial comparison registry, not a source-linked FDD record. Verify the current FDD before relying on any figure.
Read our methodology - what this registry can and cannot establish.
Source: PlainFranchise editorial registry Record-level FDD source link and retrieval date pending
| Publisher | PlainFranchise |
| Sources | Public state franchise disclosure registries and FDD filings |