Drive-in movies are dead, but Jeff and Sharon Sperber and have taken their expertise in marketing and applied it to Eat See Hear, the couple’s Sherman Oaks-based entertainment series that combines an outdoor movie with food trucks and live music. Starting the first Saturday in May and running for 20 weeks into mid-September, the couple puts on outdoor movie screenings at parks and stadiums throughout the L.A. area. Eat See Hear’s business model is based on ticket sales and sponsorships that include CBS Corp.’s cable network Showtime, Air New Zealand and Laemmle Theatres. Programming the series is a combination of choosing films the couple thinks people want to see, titles that were popular a few years ago and the occasional current film. “This year we are screening ‘La La Land,’ which obviously everyone seemed to love,” said Sharon Sperber, who also operates Trailhead Marketing Inc. with her husband. Eat See Hear, however, isn’t the only game in town when it comes to outdoor films. There is, for example, the Rooftop Cinema Club at the Montalban Theatre in Hollywood, Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Street Food Cinema at various locations around the city. Sperber said that Eat See Hear differentiates itself from the other outdoor screening events in a several ways, starting with the iconic venues that it uses. In addition to the North Hollywood Recreation Center, it books screenings at the Autry Museum, Rose Bowl, Pasadena City Hall and the Memorial Greek amphitheater at Santa Monica High School. Eat See Hear events also feature live music prior to the film, food trucks and a dog-friendly environment, complete with free dog biscuits. A portion of the ticket sales is donated to Best Friends Animal Society and its efforts to establish no kill shelters in Los Angeles, Sperber said. Lastly, there are the Hollywood-style production values that include the largest inflatable screen on the West Coast. It measures 35 feet tall and 52 feet wide. “We throw our lens from about 300 feet back, so there is not a projector up front for somebody to walk up and make shadow puppets in front of or to walk in front of,” Sperber said. The next screening in the San Fernando Valley takes place June 24 when “Grease” is presented at the NoHo Recreation Center at Chandler Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue. Tickets are $14 for adults and $8 for children, with the reserved Fashionably Late section costing $21. It is the second and final screening this summer in the Valley – “Casablanca” was shown May 13 – as the availability of the center can be tough to nail down. “The North Hollywood Rec Center has a lot of sports throughout the summer,” Sperber said. – Mark R. Madler