Chuck E. Cheese's (formerly Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza ) is a chain of American family entertainment centers and restaurants. Chain is the main brand of CEC Entertainment, Inc. and headquartered in Irving, Texas. The establishment serves pizza and other menu items, complemented by arcade games, amusement rides, and animatronic displays as the focus of family entertainment. This brand gets its name from the main animatronic character Chuck E. Cheese, a comedy rat who sings and interacts with the guests.
The first location opened in San Jose, California, as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, on May 17, 1977. The concept was co-created by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, credited with bringing video games like Pong to the stream main. Pizza Time Theater is the first family restaurant to blend food, animated entertainment and indoor arcades. After the filing of bankruptcy, the chain was acquired by ShowBiz's Pizza Place competitors in 1984, forming ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. In 1990, the company began to unite the two brands with the aim of changing the name of each location to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. The logo was redesigned in 1994 after pizza was dropped from the name of each store. ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. to CEC Entertainment, Inc. in 1998, and more than 600 Chuck E. Cheese stores opened in 47 states and 15 countries by 2017.
Video Chuck E. Cheese's
Chain history
Foundations
Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater was founded by Atari's founder, Nolan Bushnell, who seeks to expand the coverage of video game arcades beyond more adult locations such as swimming pools to child-friendly places and families. Bushnell's experience in the amusement park industry, as well as his passion for Walt Disney Company, was influential in the concept of the Pizza Time Theater concept. The first location opened in San Jose, California, in 1977, and is labeled as the first family restaurant to blend food, cheap animated entertainment, and indoor arcades. In 1978, Bushnell bought the Pizza Time Theater concept from Atari's parent company, Warner Communications. Gene Landrum later withdrew from Atari and was appointed Chuck E. Cheese's President of the Pizza Time Theater.
Bushnell has said of his decision to open a pizza restaurant, "This is my favorite project... I choose pizza because of the waiting time and the development schedule: very few components and not too many ways to mess it up." After finding out from an animatronic worker that the costume he bought was a rodent rather than a coyote he thought he was buying, Bushnell said he suggested changing the name of the "Coyote Pizza" establishment to "Rick Rat's Pizza". The marketing person dislikes it and proposes "Chuck E. Cheese" instead, which is used.
To expand beyond California and the west coast, Nolan began franchising, resulting in a joint development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in 1979. The treaty gave Brock an exclusive franchise right to open Pizza Time Theaters in sixteen countries throughout the South and West Central United States, while also forming a corporate subdivision, "Pizza Show Biz", to develop Pizza Time Theaters.
ShowBiz Pizza Place
In November 1979, Brock met Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. Noting that Fechter's animatronics would be too strong a competition for Bushnell's work, Brock requested that Bushnell release him from the co-development agreement, for the wrong reasons. In December 1979, Brock and Fechter formed "Showbiz Pizza Place Inc", broke Brock's business relationship with Bushnell. ShowBiz Pizza Place is conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theater in all aspects except for animation, which will be provided by Creative Engineering. Showbiz Pizza Place opened its first location on March 3, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri.
After the opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management for breach of contract. Brock immediately issued a counter-claim against Bushnell, falsely arguing. The court case began in March 1980, eventually settling out of court with Showbiz agreeing to pay for Pizza Time Theater some of its profits over the next decade. During this period, Topeka Inn Management also changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation and moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas. Both restaurants experienced a successful increase as the video game industry became stronger, and, to maintain competition, both franchises continually modified and diversified their animatronic events.
Merger and restructure
In 1981, the Pizza Time Theater became public; However, the growing video game industry and video game crash of 1983 resulted in significant losses to Pizza Time Theater, which lost $ 15 million in 1983, and in 1984, Bushnell's debt was insurmountable, resulting in the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Pizza Time Theater Inc. Showbiz then bought the founding company, creating himself as Showbiz Pizza Time Inc.
After the merger, both restaurant chains continue to operate under their respective titles, while major financial restructuring has begun. During this period, Creative Techniques began breaking ties with ShowBiz Pizza Time (officially splitting in September 1990), resulting in the unification of both brands. In 1992, all restaurants assumed the name of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza . The name was shortened to Chuck E. Cheese's in March 1995 after a redesigned concept. In 1998, Showbiz Pizza Time changed its name to CEC Entertainment, Inc. to reflect the remaining chain brand.
International expansion
In the early 1980s, the restaurant franchise debuted in Australia under the name Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse. The name change relates to the general meaning of the word "chuck", which in Australia is a reference to the phrase "vomiting". Pizza Time Theater also opened at least one restaurant in Hong Kong, which closed shortly thereafter as a result of company bankruptcy in early 1984.
More international locations are open in Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, and United Arab Emirates.
The company was supposed to open a branch in the Philippines in Glorietta but it was canceled due to differences in the standard mall design of CEC locations should be followed. The location of the first branch is still proposed. Further planned markets are in Argentina, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, more cities in Mexico, Oman, Poland, more cities in Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
Buy and modern design
In February 2014, Apollo Global Management acquired CEC Entertainment, Inc. at a price of $ 54 per share, or about $ 950 million.
In August 2017, the company began driving new design concepts in seven renovated sites (three in Kansas City, three in San Antonio, one in Selma, Texas), branded Chuck E. Cheese Pizzeria & Competition. These locations feature more luxurious décor with a "muted" interior color scheme, an open kitchen, a Play Pass card system to replace an arcade token, and an animatronic stage show replaced by a dance floor area. This change, along with an expansion for food bids, is intended to help the chain provide an experience that can appeal better to mature visitors, and encourage family meals compared to the main parties.
Maps Chuck E. Cheese's
Menu item
While the main focus is pizza, Chuck E. Cheese also offers sandwiches with cold cuts, chicken wings, salad bar and desserts. Some stores are also used as test locations featuring the new Chuck E. Cheese food. A certain Chuck E. Cheese location also offers beer and wine.
Starting on November 13, 2012, new gluten free menu items are available in over 500 locations in the US and Canada. This currently includes a selection of personalized cheese pizza and new items such as chocolate or vanilla sheet cake and cotton candy.
Entertainment
Arcade and currency
Since its inception the company to this day, one of the main attractions for shops is arcade. The arcade game consists primarily of redemption games or arcade video games.
The brass tokens issued by the company for use in their arcades are in various types, and collected by exonumia fans. The company once tested the card access method for use with arcade games and their skills in one location. Test locations will no longer use tokens, and instead use refill cards to access credits, which replace tokens, and points, which replace tickets. However, this is then removed. It was tested under a different name, including "Chuck E. Super Discount Card" and "Chuck E. Token Card". This method is being tested in some markets again. Instead of electronic tickets like previous cards, customers still carry paper tickets, and cards just take the place of the metal token. CECE, or CEC Entertainment, has called up a new "Play Pass" system.
animatronic figure
Along with the arcade, another major draw for the centers from the start was its animatronic performances, until the mid-1990s. More recently, less attention has been placed on animatronics. However, there are now several different styles of animatronic performances used within the company, depending on when the location is opened, whether it is remodeled, and other factors.
When the first location opened in 1977, the animatronic character was featured in a framed portrait hanging on the wall of the main dining area, but is now no longer in use. The show featured Crusty The Cat (the first character to face retirement because he was soon replaced with Mr. Munch in 1978), Pasqually the singing chef, Jasper T. Jowls, Warblettes, and the main focus of the show, Chuck E. Cheese. Later, the restaurant also added a "Cabaret" show in separate rooms in each restaurant. They also often replace the only female character, currently named Helen Henny, in the main show. They achieve this by applying cosmetic changes to existing robots, as well as changing stage backgrounds, to match the players. An in-house control system consisting of a 6502-based controller in a card cage with various driver boards is called "Cyberamics".
Beginning in 1998, the company's new store event, called "Studio C", consists of one Chuck E. Cheese character made by Garner Holt along with a large television monitor, lighting effects, and interactive elements. Other characters appear as dolls on TV screens. The control system dubbed "Cyberstar" was redesigned from the ground up and produced by Dave Philipsen. In some markets, companies are also trying out a new store concept that eliminates the entire animated event. This is a Circle of Lights stage consisting of Chuck E. Cheese or animatronic character in a stage of futuristic light with a large television monitor. In 2017, Chuck E. Cheese announces that the animatronic show will be removed for the sake of a modern dance floor. This step is being piloted in several locations before being implemented throughout the company.
The members who appear in the animatronic show are:
- Chuck E. Cheese - vocals
- Helen Henny - vocals
- Sir. Munch - vocals, keyboard
- Jasper T. Jowls - vocals, guitar
- Pasqually P. Pieplate - vocals, drums
Costume costumes
Two types of costumed performances are used by Chuck E. Cheese's: the Live show and Road show. Live shows are performed in front of the stage in the showroom, whenever a child celebrates birthdays. In live performances, customized "Happy Birthday" songs are sung for children celebrating birthdays. Chuck E. Cheese dancing with the guests and singing, while accompanied by the players. The Road show is a performance by the character of a costumed Chuck E. Cheese, and performed outside the normal showroom. Children are collected through public announcement systems or by Chuck E. Cheese himself. Chuck E. Cheese wants kids to dance to win free tickets. Free tickets are thrown at the end of the show for all participating children. Chuck comes out every half hour. The songs that he and the kids dance are usually famous classical songs such as "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes".
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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