---
title: "Jack in the Box Franchise Costs, Fees & Profits 2025"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/fb8cde34-e2ba-4f3d-b688-7c8ea9b99a4a
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/franchise-deep-dive-jack-in-the-box-franchise-costs-fees-profit-and-data-2721766
category: "Burger"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Burger"
published: 2023-05-15T14:09:01.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T22:33:50.086Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/3e94b77591584b44840c8ea1ae933ef85428.jpg
---

# Jack in the Box Franchise Costs, Fees & Profits 2025

**TL;DR:** Jack in the Box, a quick-service restaurant brand, offers franchise opportunities with a drive-thru-focused model and strong unit-level economics. The company has over 2,200 locations across the United States and has relaunched franchising efforts with a renewed focus on unit-level economics.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2023-05-15. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/franchise-deep-dive-jack-in-the-box-franchise-costs-fees-profit-and-data-2721766).*

## Story

Jack in the Box, a long-established quick-service restaurant brand, continues to expand with franchise opportunities, offering a drive-thru-focused model and strong unit-level economics.

Based in San Diego, Jack in the Box is a quick-service restaurant (QSR) burger franchise with a menu that features a wide variety of food in addition to hamburgers, including chicken sandwiches, breakfast, tacos, salads, shakes and sides.

In 1951, Robert O. Peterson opened a drive-thru burger restaurant with a large jack-in-the-box clown on the roof in San Diego. While the drive-through concept was not new, Jack in the Box was the first major chain to prioritize it, introducing a two-way intercom system to streamline ordering.

Peterson formed Foodmaker, Inc. as a holding company for Jack in the Box in 1960. At this time, all Jack in the Box locations—over 180, mainly in California and the Southwest—were company-owned. The company was eventually sold to Ralston Purina in the ‘70s.

In 1982, Jack in the Box began franchising. Over the preceding decades, Jack in the Box has experienced various ups and downs when it comes to growth. For example, its expansion into East Coast markets was halted several times in the ‘80s. In the 2010s, Jack in the Box completely stopped franchise growth for nearly a decade.

In July 2018, the National Jack in the Box Franchisee Association, which represents the owners of about 2,000 of the chain's 2,240 restaurants, voted "no confidence" in the company's chief executive officer, Leonard "Lenny" Comma, and called for him to resign.

In 2021, Jack in the Box announced it would be relaunching franchising efforts with a renewed focus on unit-level economics and a new low-cost and drive-thru only restaurant prototype.

Today, Jack in the Box has over 2,200 locations across the United States.

The chain emphasizes its great drive-thru experience, and the large majority of Jack in the Box business comes from drive-thru and takeout orders. New franchisees can choose to franchise a newly constructed restaurant or an already built location. Most Jack in the Box restaurants offer both drive-through service as well as seating for anywhere from 20 to 100 customers. However, from time to time, the franchisor will allow nontraditional restaurant formats. The brand also rolled out a new low-cost and drive-thru only prototype to align with post-COVID consumer trends.

Below represents the historical gross sales for franchised restaurants in the continental U.S. for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2023.

The total estimated initial investment ranges from $1,810,600 to $4,207,500. This breaks down as follows:

Jack in the Box charges an initial franchise fee of $50,000 for each franchised restaurant.

Notable exceptions include:

- If your franchise term is for less than the standard 20 years, the initial franchise fee is $2,500 for each year or partial year exceeding six months.

- If you will be offering a nontraditional location, the initial franchise fee is $25,000 for each unit.

*Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained on this site constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any franchises, securities, or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the franchise and/or securities laws of such jurisdiction.*

*All content in this article is information of a general nature and does not address the detailed circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Nothing in the article constitutes professional and/or financial advice, nor does any information in the email constitute a comprehensive or complete statement of the matters discussed or the law relating thereto. You alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content in this article before making any decisions based on such information or other content.*

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- unit expansion (topic)
- franchising (topic)
- franchise costs (topic)
- qsr (topic)
- franchise fees (topic)
- Jack in the Box (company)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/franchise-deep-dive-jack-in-the-box-franchise-costs-fees-profit-and-data-2721766). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/fb8cde34-e2ba-4f3d-b688-7c8ea9b99a4a).
