North Texas-based Chuck E. Cheese is lowering the final curtain on its iconic animatronic band.
The kid-favorite restaurant group is taking them out of every venue in the country except for one.
The animatronic characters and their band were a part of the childhoods of several generations. Children and adults across the country might recall attending birthday parties at either Chuck E. Cheese or ShowBiz Pizza Place, depending on where they grew up and how old they are.
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Now, it's the end of the road for the beloved characters that revolutionized local family entertainment with what was groundbreaking technology at the time.
CEC Entertainment announced earlier this month that all the animatronic bands were being retired in almost all of the more than 550 venues nationwide. Only one robot band would remain at a location in California near Los Angeles.
The announcement comes three weeks after the release of "Five Nights at Freddy's," a horror movie featuring similar animatronic puppets.
The movie is based on a popular video game that follows a security guard who must survive five nights at "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza," a restaurant seemingly inspired by pizza chains like Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza Place, while the animatronic characters come alive and try to kill him.
Though Chuck E. Cheese is saying goodbye to its animatronic bands, the Irving-based chain plans to upgrade its venues over the next few years. They will see new technology, interactive dance floors, kid-focused arcade games, and new trampoline zones in some locations.
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Chuck E. Cheese's brand transformation comes after the family entertainment and pizza chain fell on hard times during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nearly 50-year-old company filed for bankruptcy in 2020 as the restaurant industry as a whole was impacted by the spread of the virus.
Full-service Chuck E. Cheese restaurants lost about 80% of their average revenue at the peak of the pandemic. Prior to that, the company still carried nearly $1 billion in debt on their balance sheet through the fourth quarter of 2019.
The restaurant chain has managed to bounce back since the pandemic. Chuck E. Cheese announced earlier this year that it would give away 500 free children's birthday parties to lucky winners nationwide to celebrate the most common birthday, which is Sept. 9.
The popular entertainment center chain has also brought back a fan favorite "Birthday Star Free" promotion, where the birthday kid celebrates for free with 12 or more paid birthday party guests.
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