'WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'' Moviegoers and DonorsChoose.org Give Back to More Than 30,000 Students

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- DonorsChoose.org has partnered with Paramount Pictures, Participant Media and Walden Media to offer a $15 DonorsChoose.org gift card to each moviegoer who purchases a ticket for WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN." The  $15 gift code can be used on the DonorsChoose.org site, where moviegoers can give back to a classroom project of their choice.  Since the film's limited release on September 24th, more than 30,000 students across the country have benefited from this program.

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Available at the box office, as well as to those who purchase advanced tickets online at Fandango.com and Movietickets.com, the gift cards can be used to fulfill requests made by public school teachers from every corner of America who post classroom project needs on DonorsChoose.org. The mission of DonorsChoose.org is to improve public education by empowering every teacher to be a change-maker and enabling any citizen to be a philanthropist.

"We are grateful to our funders that provided the backing to distribute DonorsChoose.org gift cards to everyone that is moved by the film," said DonorsChoose.org Founder and CEO, Charles Best. "We hope that moviegoers will take the opportunity to connect with a classroom project that most inspires them on our site and that this connection will inspire them to do even more to help improve public education."

The online offers on Movietickets.com and Fandango.com are valid through October 10, 2010 or while supplies last.  To purchase tickets online, please visit:

Movietickets - http://www.movietickets.com/movie_detail.asp?movie_id=86668

Fandango - http://www.fandango.com/waitingforsuperman_133889/movieoverview

Theater chains began distributing the gift cards with the film's limited release on September 24th.  Gift cards are available at the box office while supplies last.  The offer is only valid in the United States.

DonorsChoose.org first teamed with WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN" by donating $5 gift cards to every person who pledged to see the film by September 15th.

WAITING FOR "SUPERMAN" directed by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") is released under the Paramount Vantage banner and distributed by Paramount Pictures.  It examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories. Designed to start a national conversation, the movie and corresponding "Take the Pledge" campaign aim to inspire everyone to create innovative and long-term solutions to help change the course of our kids' lives for the better.

The film is produced by Lesley Chilcott, with Participant Media's Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann serving as executive producers. It is written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball.

The film opened in New York and Los Angeles on September 24th. It opens in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Washington D.C. on October 1st and will continue to expand to cities across the U.S and Canada throughout October.

To learn more about DonorsChoose, visit http://www.donorschoose.org

For more information about the movie go to http://www.WaitingForSuperman.com

To join the conversation visit us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/WaitingForSuperman

What does your school need? Tell us by Tweeting #MySchoolNeeds at http://www.Twitter.com/WaitingSuperman

About Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands.  The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.  PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About Participant Media

Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.

Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives.  For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs, which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant's films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson's War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure, The Visitor, The Soloist, Food, Inc., The Informant!, The Cove, The Crazies, Oceans, Furry Vengeance, CASINO JACK and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero and Waiting for "Superman."

About Walden Media

Walden Media specializes in entertainment for the whole family. Past award-winning films include: "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Nim's Island" and "Charlotte's Web." Upcoming films include the third installment in the Narnia series "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader."

About DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org is an online nonprofit that enables anyone to connect to a public school classroom in a personal and direct way.  Launched out of a Bronx high school in 2000, DonorsChoose.org has been profiled as "the future of philanthropy" by The New York Times and as "a revolutionary charity" by Oprah Winfrey. On DonorsChoose.org, public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class. In the past ten years of operation, residents of 50 states and 10 countries have funded 88,926 student projects, channeling more than $54.3 million in resources to 3,323,384 students. 

SOURCE Paramount Pictures Corporation