Related Party Transactions - Founder and Chairman and PJMF (Details) - USD ($)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 30, 2018	Dec. 31, 2017	Dec. 25, 2016
Transactions with entity owned by Founder
Related party transactions
Cash paid for charter aircraft services	$ 300,000	$ 446,000	$ 732,000
PJMF
Related party transactions
Contributions for additional advertising	10,000,000
Loyalty program reimbursement received	900,000	1,600,000	1,100,000
Other reimbursements received	$ 1,000,000	$ 1,300,000	$ 1,400,000

Represents other reimbursements received.

No definition available.

Name:	pzza_OtherReimbursementsReceived
Namespace Prefix:	pzza_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Represents the reimbursement of loyalty program expenses received from a related party.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	pzza_RelatedPartyLoyaltyProgramExpenseReimbursement
Namespace Prefix:	pzza_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount charged to advertising expense for the period, which are expenses incurred with the objective of increasing revenue for a specified brand, product or product line.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/disclosureRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 720
-SubTopic 35
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6420018&loc=d3e36677-107848

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_AdvertisingExpense
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Expenses recognized resulting from transactions (excluding transactions that are eliminated in consolidated or combined financial statements) with related party.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 850
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (c)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6457730&loc=d3e39549-107864

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionExpensesFromTransactionsWithRelatedParty
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionsByRelatedPartyAxis=pzza_TransactionsWithFounderAndChairmanMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_RelatedPartyTransactionsByRelatedPartyAxis=pzza_PapaJohnSMarketingFundMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: