'Lone Survivor' Helping Fundraise for Veterans Charities

Peter Berg's Film 44, NBCUniversal and three nonprofits are teaming up to raise money, while Fandango is giving moviegoers the opportunity to donate when purchasing tickets.

Lone Survivor is not only dominating the box office, it's also helping raise money for an important cause.

When the credits role on Lone Survivor, real photographs are shown of the men who died in the Navy SEAL mission depicted in the film. It's a powerful moment, and one that director Peter Berg and others hope will translate into a desire for audience members to do something to help veterans.

"This film makes you realize that wasn't just a story. This wasn't fiction," says Chris Marvin, a veteran and the managing director of the nonprofit Got Your 6. "These things really happened. That's important for Americans to know because the 19 people who died that day were sent by the American public."

Berg and Sarah Aubrey's Film 44 and NBCUniversal have teamed up with veterans groups to create the Lone Survivor Fund, which accepts donations and gives them to three organizations: Got Your 6, the Navy SEAL Foundation and the Lone Survivor Foundation, the group founded by Marcus Luttrell, played by Mark Wahlberg in the film.

Fandango also is giving people the option to donate to the fund when they purchase tickets for the film.

The Navy SEAL drama raised $100,000 for the fund in its wide release this weekend, largely thanks to private screenings organized by friends of Berg over the past few weeks.

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The film's stars are also helping promote the fund. On The Ellen Show this week, Wahlberg and co-star Taylor Kitsch plugged the Lone Survivor Fund when they competed in an obstacle course challenge, with the winner getting $10,000 to donate to the charity of his choice. Both chose to compete for the fund.

In the three screenings of Lone Survivor Marvin has attended, people don't fumble for their cellphones after the credits. They tend to sit silently and chat amongst themselves about the film as they are exiting. He says that bodes well for Lone Survivor having a positive impact.

"I think people have the tendency to want to take action when they have the realization that they were real people," he says.

Donations can be made at the Lone Survivor Fund's website.