Playtone

This article is about the production company. For the 1950s Swedish rock n roll band, see The Playtones.

The Playtone Company (stylized on-screen as PLAY•TONE; a.k.a. Playtone Productions)^[2][3] is an American film and television production company established in 1998 by actor Tom Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman, and based in Santa Monica, California.

The Playtone Company

Company type	Private
Industry	Film production Television production
Founded	January 23, 1998; 27 years ago (1998-01-23) in Santa Monica, California, United States
Founders	Tom Hanks Gary Goetzman
Headquarters	Santa Monica, California , United States
Key people	Tom Hanks (CEO) Rita Wilson Hanks (CFO)[1]
Products	Motion pictures Television programs
Owner	Tom Hanks
Subsidiaries	Playtone Records
Website	www.playtone-productions.com

It was named after the fictional record company of the same name in the 1996 film That Thing You Do!, written and directed by Hanks; it also uses the same company logo, typically revealed on-screen with a brief instrumental snippet of the titular song itself, with some variations in each film depending on subject matter. The success of the film served as a spring-board to launch an actual Playtone Records label. Playtone has had an exclusive television development deal with HBO since the company was formed. Over the course of that time, Playtone's projects for HBO have won 46 Emmy Awards, while garnering 113 Emmy Award nominations.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Film	Directed by	Co-production(s)	Distributor(s)
Released films
2000	Cast Away	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers	20th Century Fox (North America) DreamWorks Pictures (International)
2002	My Big Fat Greek Wedding	Joel Zwick	Gold Circle Films, HBO Films and MPH Entertainment	IFC Films
2004	The Polar Express	Robert Zemeckis	Castle Rock Entertainment, ImageMovers and Shangri-La Entertainment	Warner Bros. Pictures
2005	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon	Mark Cowen	—	IMAX
2006	Neil Young: Heart of Gold	Jonathan Demme	Reprise Records and Shangri-La Entertainment	Paramount Classics
	The Ant Bully	John A. Davis	DNA Productions and Legendary Pictures	Warner Bros. Pictures
	Starter for 10	Tom Vaughan	BBC Films, HBO Films and Neal Street Productions	Picturehouse (United States) Icon Film Distribution (United Kingdom)
2007	Charlie Wilson's War	Mike Nichols	Participant Productions and Relativity Media	Universal Pictures
2008	The Great Buck Howard	Sean McGinly	Bristol Bay Productions and Walden Media	Magnolia Pictures
	Mamma Mia!	Phyllida Lloyd	Relativity Media and Littlestar	Universal Pictures
	City of Ember	Gil Kenan	Walden Media	20th Century Fox
2009	My Life in Ruins	Donald Petrie	—	Fox Searchlight Pictures
	Where the Wild Things Are	Spike Jonze	Legendary Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures	Warner Bros. Pictures
2011	Larry Crowne	Tom Hanks	Vendôme Pictures	Universal Pictures
2013	Parkland	Peter Landesman	American Film Company	Exclusive Media Group
2016	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2	Kirk Jones	Gold Circle Films and HBO Films	Universal Pictures
	A Hologram for the King	Tom Tykwer	X-Filme Creative Pool and Primeridian Entertainment	Lionsgate Films Roadside Attractions Saban Films
2017	The Circle	James Ponsoldt	Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Likely Story	EuropaCorp STX Entertainment
2018	Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again	Ol Parker	Legendary Pictures and Littlestar	Universal Pictures
2020	Greyhound	Aaron Schneider	Sony Pictures, Stage 6 Films, Bron Studios, FilmNation Entertainment, Sycamore Pictures and Zhengfu Pictures	Apple TV+
	News of the World	Paul Greengrass	Pretty Pictures	Universal Pictures (United States) Netflix (International)
2023	A Man Called Otto	Marc Forster	Columbia Pictures, Stage 6 Films, SF Studios, Artistic Films, 2DUX², Big Indie and STXfilms	Sony Pictures Releasing
	My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3	Nia Vardalos	Gold Circle Films and HBO Films	Focus Features
2024	The Bloody Hundredth[4]	Mark Herzog Laurent Bouzereau	Amblin Television and Herzog & Co.	Apple TV+
Upcoming films
TBA	Beautiful	TBA	Columbia Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing
	Spring Awakening		—	TBA

Series

Television series

Year(s)	Title	Created by	Co-production(s)	Distributor	Original Network
Released series
2001	Band of Brothers	Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg	DreamWorks Television	Warner Bros. Television	HBO
2003	My Big Fat Greek Life	Nia Vardalos and Marsh McCall	Brad Grey Productions / Marsh McCall Productions	Sony Pictures Television	CBS
2006–11	Big Love	Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer	Anima Sola Productions	Warner Bros. Television	HBO
2008	John Adams	David Coatsworth and Steve Shareshian	High Noon Productions / Mid Atlantic Films
2010	The Pacific	Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman	DreamWorks Television
2012	Game Change	Mark Halperin and John Heilemann	HBO Films
2014	Olive Kitteridge	Elizabeth Strout	As Is Productions
	The Sixties	Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog	Herzog & Company		CNN
2015	The Seventies
2016	The Eighties
2017	The Nineties
2018	The 2000s
2019	The Movies
2023	The 2010s
2024	Masters of the Air[5]	John Shiban and John Orloff	Amblin Television / Apple Studios	Apple Inc.	Apple TV+

Web series

Year(s)	Title	Created by	Co-production(s)	Distributor	Original Network
2012	Electric City	Tom Hanks	6 Point Harness / Reliance Entertainment	Yahoo!	Yahoo! Screen

Playtone Records releases

• That Thing You Do! soundtrack (1996)
• The Sopranos soundtrack
• The Sopranos: Peppers & Eggs soundtrack
• Bring It On soundtrack (2000)
• Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack (2001)
• Band of Brothers soundtrack (2001)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding soundtrack (2002)
• The Truth About Charlie soundtrack (2002)
• Starter for 10 soundtrack (2006)

See also

• List of record labels