With the help of a few sure-fire successes brought over from ITV, it gradually established itself, though still subsidized by the sub-scriptions.

And I'd defend it as smug on purpose - one long, high-fiving in-joke about its own sure-fire success." "

To make its new technology a sure-fire success, however, Microsoft is being forced to move into new territory too.

Fisher's "If I Knew Then," which came out in September, is probably the first sure-fire success to start out under the imprint of a so-called self-publishing company.

Wouldn't the Kyoto Super Marios - perhaps with off-season help from Seattle - be a sure-fire success?

"With ticket prices the way they are, people won't buy until a play is considered a sure-fire success," said Mr. Dawson, 41 years old.

Several of these films will appear over the Thanksgiving-Christmas season, and two of them are viewed by exhibitors as the only sure-fire successes of this important season.

Topping the list was the saga of "It Ain't Nothin' but the Blues," which continued to prove that for sure-fire success, nothing beats a protest.

War Horse seems less of a sure-fire commercial success than the current MTC hit, Venus in Fur.

Hampton Roads or Norfolk, Va., isn't stamped a sure-fire success.