Planet Hollywood
The movie-memorabilia restaurant chain backed by Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Moore — where you ate burgers under a display case of screen-worn props. Planet Hollywood was 1990s celebrity capitalism served with a side of fries.
Planet Hollywood opened on October 22, 1991, in New York City, founded by restaurateur Robert Earl and film producer Keith Barish as a Hollywood-themed answer to the Hard Rock Cafe. Instead of guitars, the walls held movie memorabilia and props, and the star power was literal: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg were among the celebrity backers who turned openings into red-carpet events.
Through the mid-1990s the chain rode its A-list glamour to more than 60 locations worldwide, and its April 1996 IPO priced at $18 a share and spiked to $32 on its first day of trading. Tourists lined up for the burgers, the branded merchandise, and the chance to stand where the stars had stood at another splashy launch.
The formula didn't last. The stock cratered to under a dollar by 1999, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 12, 1999, followed by a second filing in 2001 citing $135 million in debt. A handful of locations survive today under Robert Earl's Earl Enterprises, but Planet Hollywood's real era was the 1990s — when eating dinner felt, briefly, like a movie premiere.
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