Discovery Zone was a national chain of family fun centers for children which featured indoor mazes, roller slides, climbing play structures, ball pits and arcade games.
History[]
Discovery Zone was founded by Ronald Matsch, Jim Jorgensen and Dr. David Schoenstadt. The first location opened in October of 1989 in Kansas City, Missouri. The business grew quickly, opening up 15 stores in 18 months.
In April of 1993, Blockbuster Video invested $10.3 into Discovery Zone to purchase 21% of the chain. In June of that same year, the chain raised $55 million more after going public on NASDAQ and the stock rose to 61% in its first day of trading.
In July of 1994 (under the leadership of CEO Don Flynn), Discovery Zone bought 45 Leaps & Bounds stores for $111 million in stock and 57 franchised stores from Blockbuster Video for $91 million in stocking, bringing the total stores to almost 300.
In April of 1995, Blockbuster Video (which was a subsidiary of Viacom) had total management control of Discovery Zone. Viacom had plans to cross market Discovery Zone with other businesses such as Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and Showtime.
By the time Viacom took control of the business, they signed a deal with Saban Entertainment to include characters from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show at the play centers. They also planned to create a new family entertainment center to compete against Dave & Buster's (which was dubbed "Metro Zone").
Closure[]
On March 26, 1996, Discovery Zone filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware with debts up to $366.8 million.
On June 30, 1999, they abruptly closed down half of their locations. By December of 2001, the remaining 205 locations in 39 states, Canada and Puerto Rico were shut down.