‘Tommy Boy’ Leads the Pack : Box office: ‘SNL’ stars power film to top of a weak field. New offerings ‘Tank Girl’ and ‘Born to Be Wild’ draw small audiences.

In this week’s installment of television goes to the movies, “Tommy Boy,” starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Chris Farley and David Spade, pulled ahead of a rather weak pack to lead the weekend movie box-office race with an estimated $8.5 million on 2,165 screens.

However, the news was not so good for a couple of other new screen offerings. MGM/UA’s comic book “Tank Girl,” starring Lori Petty, had a disastrous $2.1-million opening offensive on 1,341 screens. And “Born to Be Wild,” the adventures of a boy and his gorilla, didn’t even scratch its way to the Top 10, with an estimated $1.7 million on 1,360 screens.

Among art-house debuts was Merchant/Ivory’s historical drama “Jefferson in Paris,” which swept in with $64,000 on two screens, one in New York and one in Los Angeles.

As has been the case since the peak Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, box-office gross has lagged considerably behind 1994. Universal distribution chief Nikki Rocco is estimating that the past weekend was no exception, probably 6% behind last year--with the gap closing to 2% to 3% if Sunday business proved above expectations.

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John Krier at Exhibitor Relations, which tracks ticket sales, was a bit more optimistic, putting the weekend about even with last year. Either way, summer 1995 will have to be even stronger than last year’s record to make up for the past couple of months--unlikely, though that’s what they said last year too.

In other preliminary weekend results, “Outbreak” slipped to a still-strong second place with a $5.9-million estimated take and is close to the $50-million mark, making it one of the few substantial performers of the winter/spring season. “Major Payne,” starring Damon Wayans, held with a better-than-expected drop of 24% to an estimated $5.3 million on 1,993 screens and $14.2 million in two weekends.

“Dolores Claiborne,” starring Kathy Bates, also held strongly in its second week after a good opening, with $4.5 million on 1,249 screens and $12 million so far.

Post-Oscar attention fell mostly on “Forrest Gump,” which picked up six statuettes last week and climbed to fifth place--not bad for a movie that has been in release since early July. With an estimated $2.75 million on 1,135 screens for the past weekend, “Gump” has now grossed $321 million.

“Pulp Fiction,” which was shut-out except for a screenplay award, lost some of its momentum, but still managed $2.1 million on 1,099 screens, tying for ninth place with “Tank Girl.” With $98.2 million grossed thus far, writer-director Quentin Tarantino and company are only a weekend away from the magic $100-million plateau.

In sixth place was the Aussie import “Muriel’s Wedding,” which grossed about $2.57 million on 836 screens--about even with last week but in many more theaters--and has $7 million to date. But it’s not performing as well as the other overweight-girl-makes-good story, “Circle of Friends,” which on only 330 screens climbed to$2.5 million and seventh place at the box office, a welcome relief to hit-starved Savoy Pictures. “Circle” goes even wider this weekend.

Rounding out the Top 10 was eighth-place “Man of the House” with $2.4 million and about$34 million so far.

And, finally, controversy doesn’t always translate into dollars at the box office. “Priest” has been grabbing for the headlines but second-weekend business was $93,194 on eight screens, a good but not gangbusters total.