John Antioco

Antioco began his professional career at 7-Eleven, which he joined as a management trainee in 1970.[10] He was at the company for 20 years, in various roles.[11][12] As Senior Vice President of Marketing in April 1989, he was responsible for bringing on advertising firm J. Walter Thompson to create a slate of television commercials that marketed 7-Eleven to new-collar workers.[11] Antioco was also Senior Vice President of Operations, which meant he was in charge of operations for every 7-Eleven store worldwide.[12][10]

Antioco left 7-Eleven in 1990 to become COO at Pearle Vision.[10][13]

In 1991, he joined the convenience store chain Circle K, where he assumed the role of president and COO.[7] Circle K had filed for bankruptcy in May of 1990 and Antioco was brought in to streamline the company's operations.[14][15] Under Antioco's leadership, the chain announced plans to close or sell about 1,550 of its least profitable locations and invest in improving the rest of its stores.[14] In March 1992, at which point Antioco had become the company's CEO, Circle K was sold for approximately $425 million to a private investor group led by management in conjunction with Investcorp.[16][17] In 1994, as CEO Antioco took Circle K public, selling 6.5 million shares of stock on the New York Stock Exchange.[15][18] Antioco left Circle K in 1996, shortly after overseeing a $710 million sale of the company to Tosco Corp.[19][18]

Antioco joined Taco Bell as its new CEO in 1996.[13] During his time at Taco Bell, he oversaw changes to the company's menu, advertising, and its franchising model.[7][20]

Antioco took over as Blockbuster CEO in July 1997.[13] When he joined the company, it was struggling financially, with cash flow down 70 percent during the second quarter of the 1997 financial year.[21][13] This was in part due to Blockbuster's expansions into areas outside the video retail market, such apparel sales and a chain of music stores called Blockbuster Music.[13][22][23] Antioco decoupled Blockbuster Music from its video division, putting it under separate management.[24] The music store division was sold in August 1998 by Blockbuster's parent company Viacom to Wherehouse Entertainment for $115 million.[21][24] Early in Antioco's CEO tenure, Blockbuster also ended its relationships with Virgin Interactive, Discovery Zone, and Spelling Entertainment.[25]

In 1998, Antioco entered Blockbuster into revenue-sharing agreements with Hollywood studios, which allowed its stores to obtain many copies of new releases at a lower price than their competitors.[7] In August 1999, Antioco took Blockbuster public, selling 18 percent of its stock on the New York Stock Exchange and raising $465 million.[21][23] On the day of the initial public offering, he rang the opening bell of the NYSE alongside actress Rene Russo.[26] At the time, Blockbuster's market share in the video rental space had recently grown to 31 percent.[25]

In 2004, Antioco oversaw the launch of a new DVD subscription service called Blockbuster Online.[27][28] The service allowed customers to rent Blockbuster DVDs online and have them delivered by mail.[27][29] By the end of 2006, Blockbuster Online had approximately two million subscribers.[27] In 2007, Antioco pushed to expand the service and rebranded it as Blockbuster Total Access, which in addition to offering online DVD rentals, also allowed customers to return a Blockbuster Online DVD to a brick and mortar Blockbuster store to receive one additional free rental.[29][30]

Under Antioco, Blockbuster launched these services in part to compete with Netflix, which at the time was a growing competitor in the video retail space.[27][28][30] It has been widely reported that, in 2000, Netflix co-founders Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50 million, but Antioco declined.[31][32][23] Hastings and Randolph have also claimed this in books and interviews.[31][23][33] Antioco has disputed this version of events, stating that he never had serious discussions with Hastings or Randolph about acquiring Netflix.[31] In 2007, at the Sundance Film Festival, Antioco and Hastings met to discuss the possibility of Netflix purchasing Blockbuster Online.[34][35] Antioco preferred a full merger, and a deal between the two companies was never struck.[34][35]

Antioco left Blockbuster in 2007 due to disagreements with Blockbuster board members, most notably billionaire investor Carl Icahn, regarding the company's strategy.[36][37]

In February 2010, Antioco founded JAMCO Interests, a private equity firm that invests in retail and hospitality ventures.[38][39] JAMCO, through its subsidiary Brix Holdings, holds an interest in chain restaurants such as Red Mango, Souper Salad, and Friendly's, which it purchased in 2020 for $2 million following the chain's bankruptcy.[40][41][42][43] JAMCO is also a member of TriArtisan Partners, an investment group that owns TGI Fridays, where Antioco served as interim CEO in 2015.[44][45] He was also CEO of P.F. Chang's for approximately one year, following the company's acquisition by TriArtisan Partners.[46] Antioco is currently chairman of Red Mango, a position he has held since 2008.[40][5]

In August 2011, Antioco was appointed chairman of the board at Rave Cinemas.[12][47] He was chairman when Rave sold 32 of its theaters to Cinemark in November 2012 for approximately $240 million.[48][49]