Franchise Help estimates that you can spend anywhere from $130,000 to $850,000 to open a Papa John’s Pizza franchise. The initial fee is $25,000, but they require you to have $250,000 in liquid cash to consider you as a franchisee. There are non-standard Papa John’s Pizza franchises that cost less, with a franchise fee of $5,000. You should still expect to pay at least $27,000 to open a non-standard Papa John’s.