Murdoch blasts Fox's 'stinking films'

Rupert Murdoch: Admits mistakes were made on films

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has said earnings for 20th Century Fox were hurt by "stinking films".

The chairman of the giant News Corporation, which owns Fox, told shareholders that the film firm had made "some mistakes" which led to "particularly disappointing results".

Titan AE: Flop lead to closure of animation studios

Mr Murdoch avoided singling out any individual titles but Fox is known to have been disappointed by the poor box office of the animated Titan AE, which forced the closure of the company's animation division.

The science fiction film failed to ignite much interest at the box office, despite the voice talents of Matt Damon.

The head of Fox filmed entertainment, Bill Mechanic, resigned in June this year.

Mr Murdoch said: "The greatest diluter (in earnings) this year was from making a couple of stinking films."

He added: "We made some mistakes in the films we made and took some pretty nasty losses because of those films."

Boost: Films such as X-Men give Fox hope for next year

The Australian-born businessman, now a US citizen, said recent successes such as X-Men and Big Momma's House helped the company to a good start in the current financial year.

He said: "There are other strong films coming, but it's very dangerous to predict how they will do."

The company's filmed entertainment division reported a quarterly loss of $53m (£36.6m), down $75m (£51.8m) on the previous year's figure.

A large proportion of the loss related to charges from the shutdown of the Fox Animation Studios.