Planet Hollywood International Inc. (stylized as planet Hollywood, planet Hollywood observatory and ph) is a themed restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood. The company is owned by Earl Enterprises corporation. Earl Enterprises was founded by Robert Earl. It was launched in New York City on October 22, 1991, with the backing of Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. The actors recruited were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan. Further celebrity endorsement included actors Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Don Johnson, Cindy Crawford, Melanie Griffith, Tom Arnold, Wesley Snipes, and Danny Glover; director John Hughes; and comedian Roseanne Barr; and singer-songwriter Ringo Starr. Background Robert Earl had a history of opening theme-restaurants first in Britain (1970s) and in Orlando, Florida. In 1987, he sold this restaurant group (President Entertainments; 70 restaurants) to a larger company, Pleasurama PLC. For Pleasurama, Earl acquired control of Hard Rock Cafe International (eastern rights company) from co-founder Isaac Tigrett then in 1989 named as chief executive of the company. At the end of 1989, Mecca Leisure acquired Pleasurama. Mecca was then purchased by the Rank Organisation in 1990. While expanding Hard Rock Cafe from seven to 20 locations over the next two years, Earl met Bryan Kestner, with whom he had a shared vision of music, movies, and sports transcending language and other barriers. History Planet Hollywood was opened in late 1991 in New York City, at the base of two adjacent office buildings at 130 and 140 West 57th Street. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis were some of the actors who became investors/promoters. By the next year, three more locations were opened: London, southern California, and Chicago. In 1993, the company opened two new locations, Washington, D.C., and Cancun, Mexico, while arranging leases for five new locations. Each new unit, opening with a gala event, generated nearly $15 million revenue in their first operational year. With its success, the company continued its aggressive expansion plan in 1994 while turning its attention to developing more theme-restaurant concepts, one of which was the Official All Star Café, a sports version of Planet Hollywood. Given the go ahead, they started recruiting professional sports figures and planning its stadium and home cuisine menu and planning its merchandise. The brand's highest-grossing location unit was opened in Las Vegas in 1994 with double the usual