The producers of “World Trade Center” are donating $1.3 million to the Sept. 11 memorial, keeping a promise to give 5 percent of the film’s opening weekend box office receipts to help build it.
Another $1.3 million from that weekend’s proceeds will be split equally among three Sept. 11-related charities, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation said.
The Paramount film, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena as two Port Authority police officers trapped for hours in the trade center rubble, opened nationwide Aug. 9 and has earned $55.6 million at the box office so far.
The film’s producers had promised to donate 10 percent of its Aug. 9-13 box office proceeds to the foundation and the three charities.
The donation raises the private money available to build the memorial to $132.3 million; the memorial is budgeted at more than $650 million. The foundation is expected to raise $300 million of the total; the Port Authority, which owned the trade center, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. rebuilding agency are covering the rest of the costs.
Construction on the memorial began this year, and officials say it will open in 2009.
The other charities to split donations from the Oliver Stone film are Tuesday’s Children, a services organization for children who lost parents on Sept. 11; the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, created by a Sept. 11 family group and set to open next week across the street from ground zero; and the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.