barre3 franchise unit economics
barre3 franchisees own and run a brick-and-mortar studio selling group classes that blend barre. Pilates and yoga, plus memberships and retail, inside an authorized territory of roughly an one-mile radius. Across 145 studios open all twelve months to January 2026 the average was $432,575 of sales, up 9% on the year, with a median of $393,080. A studio scheduling 140 classes a month averaged $581,780 against $319,544 below that line.
- Primary source
- B3 Franchising LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document
- Items read
- Items 5 and 6 for fees; Item 19 for sales and any profit figure; Item 20 for the location count
- Population
- 145 of 166 locations
- Our calculations
- Marked on the page with an asterisk. Method
- Last reviewed
- 26 September 2026
Disclosure-based. Not a forecast, not an offer to sell a franchise, and not advice.
One number separates the two halves of this system: 140 classes scheduled in a month. Studios above that line averaged $48,482 a month and studios below it $26,629, an annual difference of $262,236 on the same brand, the same programming and largely the same room. And the agreement measures you against the network, at 70% of its average, which this year is $302,802.
- Scheduling 140 classes a month is worth 1.82 times the revenue. $48,482 a month against $26,629 across 1,740 studio-months *, $581,780 a year against $319,544, which is the single largest controllable lever here.
- The performance quota is 70% of whatever the network averages. $302,802 this year, up $25,916 because the network average rose 9% *, so the bar moves up when everyone else improves.
- The bottom quartile averages $235,063, some $67,740 under that bar. 36 of 145 studios, 24.8% of the reporting system *, and three consecutive years under it is a termination trigger.
- A second classroom adds $300,089 of annual revenue. $716,108 against $416,019 *, for 8 to 15 extra seats a class, the cleanest capacity-to-revenue figure available on this brand.
- Company-owned studios bill $783,918 and went down 2% while franchisees went up 9%. 1.81 times the franchised average *, six studios in dense urban markets, so read the gap as location.
How much does a barre3 franchise make?
The average barre3 unit reported $432,575 of revenue in the 2026 FDD, and the median reported $393,080. The brand’s disclosure document discloses revenue and not profit, so what an owner keeps depends on the cost structure set out below. Fees come off the top first, at about 9.5% of sales across royalty, brand fund and the rest of the stack. Revenue is not income. Rent, wages, cost of goods and the franchise fees all come out before an owner is paid. The figures for the highest-selling and lowest-selling businesses are below.
Top performers
What separates the top barre3 performers
barre3 splits its locations into groups instead of publishing one average. The best group averaged $723,143 a year. The worst averaged $235,063. Both run the same brand, on the same agreement, paying the same fees. The middle location sold $393,080. The average was $432,575. More than half the system is below the number the brand quotes.
Decided before you open
- Trade area and site.A 3.1× gap between bands is not an operating gap. Catchment, daytime population and what sits next door set the ceiling before the first customer arrives.
- Capacity, fixed at build.capacity is 145 studio floor multiplied by hours multiplied by how full they run. What you can sell is set by the build, and the build does not change after opening.
- Territory, and how much of it is real.This model sells from a territory rather than a building. Two owners with the same brand and different ground are running different businesses, and density decides how much driving sits between jobs.
- What you spend to open.Opening costs $423,925 to $754,350, a 1.8× range inside one brand. The high end usually buys more capacity, so the cheapest build is not always the cheapest route to the top band.
Live operating levers
- Members, the operating driver.This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Service and retail mix.Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites.Fees run about 9.5% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year.This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Context you underwrite around
- The reporting screen.145 of 166 locations are behind these figures. Locations open less than the full year, brand-owned, or not meeting the reporting criteria are excluded, so the numbers describe locations that cleared that screen, not the system as a whole.
- What the disclosure leaves out.Item 19 publishes no profit or cost data for franchised locations. The brand’s own locations are the only margin signal in the document, and they are run by the people who wrote the playbook.
Top performers
How far apart the locations are
This filing does not split its locations into performance bands, so the gap between the highest and lowest barre3 location is not disclosed. What it does publish is on the Model and Finance tabs.
140 classes a month
A hundred and forty classes is the line between two businesses.
| Month | Studios at 140+ classes | Average | Studios below 140 | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | 43 | $48,496 | 102 | $26,851 |
| March | 68 | $46,304 | 77 | $24,950 |
| April | 64 | $61,415 | 81 | $32,477 |
| May | 66 | $44,584 | 79 | $24,279 |
| June | 64 | $44,755 | 81 | $24,984 |
| July | 67 | $48,910 | 78 | $25,840 |
| August | 64 | $42,938 | 81 | $24,299 |
| September | 67 | $44,452 | 78 | $24,304 |
| October | 80 | $44,072 | 65 | $23,167 |
| November | 53 | $63,269 | 92 | $32,361 |
| December | 49 | $50,934 | 96 | $27,676 |
| January | 65 | $46,335 | 80 | $26,383 |
Every count and dollar figure is as the brand reported it for the twelve months of the reporting period. The two groups sum to 145 studios in each month.
Across all 1,740 studio-months the ratio holds at 1.82. $48,482 against $26,629 *, and it stays between 1.76 and 1.96 in every single month, so this is structural.
A studio at the 140-class threshold earns $346 a class. $48,482 divided across 140 *, which makes the arithmetic of adding a weekly class slot straightforward: roughly $1,500 a month for four more.
Only 43.1% of studio-months reached 140 classes. 750 of 1,740 *, so the majority of this system runs a schedule that caps its own revenue well below what the brand supports.
October had 80 studios fully scheduled and November had 53. Yet November was the stronger month for both groups, $63,269 and $32,361, so demand per class rises into the holidays even as schedules thin.
Roughly half of each group clears its own average. Between 37.5% and 47.0% among fully scheduled studios and between 45.7% and 53.3% among the rest, the shape of two tightly packed populations.
Best to worst, by sales
Top to bottom, a three-to-one range on annual revenue.
| quartile | Studios | Average | Median | Lowest | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 36 | $723,143 | $657,724 | $559,011 | $1,056,022 |
| Second | 36 | $461,737 | $447,452 | $395,641 | $548,542 |
| Third | 37 | $356,883 | $351,163 | $312,684 | $393,080 |
| Fourth | 36 | $235,063 | $206,847 | $56,396 | $309,744 |
| All 145 | 145 | $432,575 | $393,080 | $56,396 | $1,056,022 |
Every figure is as the brand reported it. The quarter averages recombine to $443,604 against the filed all-studio average of $432,575, a gap of $11,029 a studio that we flag instead of adjust.
The first quartile bills 3.08 times the fourth. $723,143 against $235,063 *, and the highest-selling single studio, at $1,056,022, bills 18.7 times the lowest-selling at $56,396.
The first and fourth quartiles both have medians well under their averages. $657,724 against $723,143 and $206,847 against $235,063, gaps of $65,419 and $28,216 *, against $14,285 and $5,720 in the middle two, so both ends of this system are stretched by a few studios.
The quartile boundaries sit within a few thousand dollars of each other. The fourth tops out at $309,744 and the third starts at $312,684, $2,940 apart *, so a studio crossing from the bottom quartile to the third moves on about $245 a month.
Half the system bills under $393,080. The median studio, against an average of $432,575 *. The average is pulled up by a first quartile whose own range spans nearly half a million dollars.
Recurring memberships are 70% of revenue and retail 5%. $302,802 and $21,629 at the system average *, so the membership base is the business and apparel is a rounding line.
The target to clear
The bar you clear is set by everyone else.
| Measure | Rate | This year * | Last year * | Change * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Network average sales | n/a | $432,575 | $395,552 | +$37,023 |
| Second full year bar | 50% of network average | $216,288 | $197,776 | +$18,512 |
| Third year and after | 70% of network average | $302,802 | $276,886 | +$25,916 |
The quota rates and the two network averages are as the brand reported it and the dollar thresholds apply those rates to those averages, marked *.
Every studio in the fourth quartile sits under the 70% bar. Its highest member bills $309,744 against a bar of $302,802, so at most one or two clear it *, which puts roughly a quarter of the reporting system inside the warning group.
The bar rose $25,916 this year because the network improved 9%. *, so a studio that held its revenue flat moved closer to default while doing exactly what it did last year.
Two consecutive years under the bar can shrink your territory and three can end the agreement. Which makes the quota the most consequential number an owner here tracks, and the one worth forecasting a year ahead.
Clearing the bar takes roughly 73 classes a month at the system’s own class economics. $302,802 a year is $25,234 a month, at $346 a class *, barely half the 140-class threshold, so the quota is a minimum.
At the system’s 70% recurring mix, membership revenue alone equals the bar. 70% of $432,575 is $302,802 *, an useful way to read it: hold an average membership base and the quota takes care of itself.
Rooms, fees and what it costs to open
Nine and a half percent to the brand, and a build worth a year of revenue.
| Charge | Rate | First quartile | All 145 | Fourth quartile | Lowest-selling studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 6% or $850 a month | $43,389 | $25,954 | $14,104 | $10,200 |
| Marketing fund | 2% | $14,463 | $8,652 | $4,701 | $1,128 |
| Software license | $487 a month | $5,844 | $5,844 | $5,844 | $5,844 |
| Music license | $709 a year | $709 | $709 | $709 | $709 |
| Total | n/a | $64,404 | $41,159 | $25,358 | $17,881 |
| Share of revenue | n/a | 8.91% | 9.51% | 10.79% | 31.71% |
The rates, minimums and monthly charges are as the brand reported it and the annual dollar figures apply them to each group's filed revenue, marked *.
The minimum royalty of $850 a month holds until revenue reaches $170,000. $10,200 a year *, which is 18.1% of what the lowest-selling studios billed, while the highest-selling pays 6% of $1,056,022, or $63,361.
Two fixed charges of $6,553 a year land on every studio alike. Software at $487 a month and music at $709, 1.5% of an average studio’s revenue and 11.6% of the lowest-selling one’s *.
A second classroom is worth $300,089 a year for 8 to 15 more seats. $716,108 against $416,019 *, and eight of the 145 studios ran one, with the median two-room studio at $716,272, almost exactly its own average.
A new studio costs $423,925 to $754,350, which is 0.98 to 1.74 times a year of average revenue. *, against $123,465 to $203,450 to rebrand an existing studio, roughly a third of the cost.
April is the highest-selling month and August the lowest-selling one. $45,250 against $32,526, a range of 1.39 times *, so a third of the difference between a good quarter and a poor one is simply the calendar.
Questions we get asked
Questions an owner asks.
What does a barre3 studio bill?
Across 145 franchisee-owned studios open all twelve months to January 2026, the average was $432,575 of sales and the median $393,080. That is up 9% and 8% on the prior year. The highest-selling billed $1,056,022 and the lowest-selling $56,396. By quartile the averages were $723,143, $461,737, $356,883 and $235,063.
What separates the strong studios from the weak ones?
Schedule density more than anything else. Studios scheduling 140 or more classes in a month averaged $48,482 against $26,629 for the rest, 1.82 times, holding in every month of the year. Annualized that is $581,780 against $319,544, on our reading, and only 43.1% of studio-months reached the threshold.
What does the brand take?
6% of gross revenues in royalty, subject to a minimum of $850 a month once the studio opens. 2% to the marketing fund, a software license of $487 a month and a music license of $709 a year. On our reading that is 9.51% of revenue at the system average, 8.91% in the first quartile and 10.79% in the fourth.
What has to be spent on marketing?
At least $25,000 on initial marketing and the grand opening, of which $20,000 goes to the franchisor with the initial fee. $5,000 a month on local advertising for up to three months after opening until the membership target is reached. Beyond that the 2% marketing fund is the only ongoing percentage requirement.
What is the performance quota?
In the second full calendar year after opening, gross revenues of at least 50% of the network average; in the third year and after, 70%. On this year's figures that is $216,288 and $302,802. Two consecutive years under it can reduce territory size and three years is a material default. The bar rose $25,916 this year because the network average rose 9%.
What territory do you get?
An authorized territory usually equivalent to an one-mile radius around the studio, set once a site is approved. A minimum female population of 25,000 and 6,500 qualified households in suburban or rural markets. Territories may overlap so long as another franchisee's studio address falls outside yours. The brand keeps the right to sell online, wholesale and through hotels, clubs and schools inside it.
What does a studio cost to open?
$423,925 to $754,350 for a new studio, of which $75,000 to $77,000 goes to the franchisor or its affiliates. Building work at $245,448 to $469,000 the largest single line. Rebranding an existing studio runs $123,465 to $203,450. A second franchise costs a discounted initial fee of $41,250 against $50,000.
Which two numbers should run monthly?
Classes scheduled against 140, because crossing that line is worth 1.82 times the revenue. And annual revenue against the 70% quota of $302,802, because that number rises whenever the network improves and holding flat moves you toward it.
- No profit figure. The filing reports sales and not earnings, so what an owner keeps is not disclosed.
- No cost lines. Wages, rent and cost of goods are not broken out, so margin cannot be rebuilt from the document.
Questions worth putting to barre3
The filing answers what it answers. These are the gaps an owner or a buyer should close directly.
- What do locations at the median spend on wages and rent as a share of sales? The filing reports sales only.
- What separates the highest-selling locations from the lowest: trade area, years open, size, or the owner?
- How long does a new location take to reach the average you publish, and what does the build-up look like month by month?
- At what level of sales do the minimum charges stop applying and the percentage take over?
- How many barre3 locations closed, were sold, or changed hands last year, and why?
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →How many classes is your month holding?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast. Reporting, built around the 140-class line worth 1.82 times the revenue, the $302,802 quota that moves with the network. The $6,553 of fixed brand charges every studio pays alike.
Request the reviewthe franchise library, all 243 brands · how franchise unit economics work · running the books across several locations · what Averan does for franchise owners
barre3 reads against the rest of the pilates, barre and yoga group: Bar Method · BODYBAR Pilates · Club Pilates · Pure Barre · Yoga Six. The pilates, barre and yoga guide compares all of them on the same figures.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- My payroll percentage keeps climbing. Is that a payroll problem?Usually it is a revenue problem wearing a payroll costume.
- I run several locations. Which ones actually make money?Location-level contribution, and what it takes to see it.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.