Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues.

[3][4] His experience in the amusement park industry, and his fondness for the Enchanted Tiki Room[1]and the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland, influenced his concept for Pizza Time Theatre.

To expand beyond California and the west coast, Bushnell began to franchise, resulting in a co-development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in June 1979.

[18] Bushnell's debts became insurmountable, and Pizza Time Theatre Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 28, 1984,[11] reporting a loss of $58 million incurred in 1983.

Beginning in June 1990, ShowBiz restaurants began converting their stage shows and rebranding their storefronts to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza.

His vest (or tuxedo suit) and derby hat were changed for a baseball cap, casual shirt, and optional sneakers in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience.

In January 2024, it was announced that Chuck E. Cheese would be making its return to Australia with a multi-unit franchise partnership with Royale Hospitality Group.

[28] [29] Consecutively, Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. also opened at least one restaurant in Hong Kong and Singapore, which both closed shortly thereafter as a result of the initial company's 1984 bankruptcy.

In the Middle East, locations would open in Saudi Arabia beginning in 2001, the United Arab Emirates in 2008, Jordan in 2019, Bahrain in 2021, Qatar in 2022, and Kuwait in 2024.

Assets from several store closures were shipped to the Mexican franchisees, with the intention of retrofitting the Pizza Time Players to better suit the country's market demographic.

These stores managed to successfully remain in operation until the 2000s, with one in Aguascalientes auctioning off equipment (including the retrofitted Chuck E. Cheese animatronics) as late as October 2018.

[47] They ran a rebranding campaign, changing the Chuck E. Cheese mascot into a slimmer rock star mouse who plays electric guitar.

Voice actor Duncan Brannan, who for 18 years had characterized Chuck E. as a hip and young mouse, was replaced with Jaret Reddick, the frontman and guitarist for the pop punk band Bowling for Soup.

[50][51] In October 2014, under Apollo Global Management, CEC Entertainment announced that they would purchase their Phoenix-based competitor, Peter Piper Pizza from ACON Investments.

These changes, along with expansions to food offerings, were intended to help the chain be more appealing to adults and encourage family dining as opposed to primarily hosting parties.

[61] The COVID-19 pandemic had been financially damaging to the parent company during 2020, and with an estimated $1–2 billion in debt, the possibility exists of all CEC properties being forced to close if bankruptcy refinancing fails.

[64] In December 2020, CEC Entertainment, the owners of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza chains, emerged from its June bankruptcy under the ownership and selling of its lenders led by Monarch Alternative Capital.

The movie follows Chuck E. Cheese and his friends as they travel to a distant planet to win money to fix Charlie Rockit's aunt and uncle's tractor engine.

In September 2020, CEO David McKillips would say that the company had recently launched an entertainment division, the goal being to produce movies and TV shows featuring the CEC cast of characters.

The series will feature adults competing with larger versions of classic Chuck E. Cheese arcade games, such as pinball, air hockey, and Skee-Ball.

The Road Stage featured a full-bodied Chuck E. Cheese Cyberamic standing on a platform, while the rest of the half-bodied band characters were set on buildings.

[91] Studio C eventually served as the replacement for Munch's Make Believe Band stages, with the last MMBB location opening in Mentor, Ohio in July 1998.

The Munch's Make Believe Band stages (CEI and Cyberamics shows) were not affected by this change of systems, although programming of new songs would cease in 2023 due to budget cuts.

[95] In 2002, Chuck E. Cheese's opened three locations, two in Waco and Lake Jackson, Texas, and one in Dover, Delaware, experimenting with a new type of format featuring a smaller layout, a buffet, no play structures, no animatronic stage (albeit featuring a "blue screen" from the Studio 'C' stages), and a constant presence of the Chuck E. Cheese costumed character.

The first being a 3-Stage in San Antonio, Texas in March 2014, a 1-Stage in Rohnert Park, California between late 2014 and early 2015, another 3-Stage in Matteson, Illinois in February 2015, and another 3-Stage in Wilmington, Delaware in September 2017.

[101] In May 2024, the animatronic shows were reported to have been set to be phased out by the end of 2024, with all but two venues discontinuing their performances, the Northridge, California and Nanuet, New York locations.

[102] After a negative response from the public, the company subsequently announced on May 24 that three additional locations would be keeping their animatronic stages: Charlotte, North Carolina, which has a 3-Stage; Hicksville, New York, which has a Cyberamics 1-Stage; and Springfield, Illinois, which has a CU 1-Stage.

On February 9, 2025, the CEO of the company, David McKillips, confirmed that the location in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada on Dixie Road would be keeping their animatronic stage.

Pizza is the main focus of the restaurant portion of the business, but the menu features other items as well including cold-cut sandwiches, chicken wings, salad bar access, and desserts.

While food sold under this brand comes from the same brick-and-mortar kitchens as Chuck E. Cheese, the company claims to use different ingredients and recipes that cater to a more mature audience.