More than 40 years after his death, Elvis Presley has one of the most lucrative entertainment franchises in the world. Despite the sorry state of his affairs in 1977, the Elvis empire has thrived, due in large part to the efforts of the people who handled his estate after his grandmother died in 1980, including his ex-wife Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, his daughter Lisa Marie and Jack Soden, the CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. (www.elvis.com), the company that handles all the official Elvis properties.
Priscilla Presley was involved in the masterstroke decision to open Elvis’s mansion, Graceland, to the public in 1982. Graceland gets more than 600,000 visitors per year, according to EPE’s website. That means that Graceland is the second most visited private residence in the US, behind the White House in Washington DC. Attendance ranges from a few hundred visitors on a weekday in the dead of winter to 2,000–3,500 visitors per day in the spring and early summer, to over 4,000 per day in July at the height of the travel season. Over half of Graceland’s visitors are under the age of 35. While visitors come from all parts of the world, the majority still come from different parts of the US. The Graceland tour costs $25, which means that EPE makes $15 million on those tickets alone, plus what it receives from photographs, hotel guests, meals and souvenirs.
EPE’s other revenue streams include a themed restaurant called Elvis Presley’s Memphis; a hotel down at the end of Lonely Street, called Heartbreak Hotel; the new hotel ‘The Guesthouse at Graceland’;
licensing of Elvis-related products; the development of Elvis-related music, film, video, TV and stage productions, and more.
Ironically, EPE gets very little money from Elvis’s actual songs, thanks to a deal Elvis’s infamous former manager, Colonel Tom Parker, made with RCA in 1973, whereby Elvis traded the rights to all future royalties from the songs he had recorded up to that point for a measly US$5.4 million – half of which he had to give to Parker.
In 2002, the 25th anniversary of his death was an international spectacle. A remix of the 1968 Elvis song ‘A Little Less Conversation’ became a global hit single and the CD Elvis: 30 #1 Hits went triple platinum. In mid-2004, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Presley’s first professional recording, ‘That’s All Right’ was re-released, and made the charts around the world, including the top three in the UK and top 40 in Australia.
In mid-October 2005, Variety named the top 100 entertainment icons of the twentieth century, with Presley landing in the top 10, along with the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean and Mickey Mouse.
Until 2005, EPE was wholly owned by the Elvis Presley Trust/Lisa Marie Presley. In February 2005, the media and entertainment company CKX Inc. acquired an 85 per cent interest in EPE, including its physical and intellectual properties. Lisa Marie Presley retained a 15 per cent ownership in the company and continued to be involved, as did her mother Priscilla. The pre-existing EPE management team remained in place, but Priscilla Presley has withdrawn from the position as chairperson and CEO of EPE. In November 2013, the 85 per cent interest in EPE was sold to Authentic Brands Group, which now owns the rights to the library of photographic imagery, video and audio assets, including television appearances and music specials. Authentic Brands Group has also acquired the rights to the management of Graceland Operations. The ownership of Graceland itself is still in the hands of Lisa Marie Presley.
In October 2016 the EPE-owned ‘The Guesthouse at Graceland’ opened just in walking distance from Graceland. The room prices range from $149 per night for a basic room to $1,300 for the highest priced suite. The total investment in the new hotel was about $ 90 million.
For 2018, EPE reported revenue of US$80 million compared with US$57 million for 2010. Operating income in 2014 was US$15 million compared with US$10 million in 2010.

Questions

1. What are the main motives for the internationalization of EPE?

2. What can EPE do to maintain a steady income stream from abroad?

3. What are the most obvious assets for further internationalization of EPE?