The pandemic blindsided the company. CEC says that between March 17 to 26, which is when dining rooms and arcade first shut, restaurants saw revenue plummet by as much as 94 percent compared to the year before. In April, CEC furloughed its hourly employees, support center personnel, and suspended rent in a measure that saved Chuck E. Cheese's parent company as much as $7 million a month. It then began looking at a possible bankruptcy filing (via QSR Magazine ).