You have to have a lot of money and a track record of success before McDonald's will consider taking you on as a franchisee. McDonald's franchisees are wealthy before they open their first restaurant.

Because Corporate knows they are going to fuck with franchisees on occasion and they want people who can weather that kind of abuse. A SIL of mine is a district manager of one of the largest MD franchisees in the region and she has some stories about how corporate tends to make the franchises pay for their mistakes. It's usually forcing the stores to take more food than they could possibly sell, but sometimes includes things like buying equipment for menu offerings that they never see a positive ROI on and is later discontinued.

You can absolutely make money running an Mickey Ds, but you have to run a very tight ship to do it.

It depends. A lot of them start out with a couple of restaurants and then work their way up. At least that was the way it worked years ago. But you’re somewhat correct at least, they’re picky about who they give franchises too. They’re also somewhat unique amongst the big restaurant franchises in that they limit the number of restaurants you can own. They want hands-on owners, and they actually require the owners to be trained on every function in the restaurant.

Source: I worked for a local franchisee about 30 years ago, and still know them casually.

It doesn't depend. You need a lot of cash to open one, otherwise McDonald's will not consider you.

I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just saying there’s a difference between the capital needed to buy a two store franchise, and a ten store franchise. But yes, neither is pocket change.