Foreign Releases, Foreign Moolah

Seeking Alpha gives an astute answer to a semi-dumb question:

2. Why are a bunch of zoo animals going to Europe? Don't they know there's a major financial crisis there?

If we look at the foreign numbers for the last Madagascar movie, we can see that the film did quite well in many European countries, grossing in excess of $40 million in both France, and Germany; about $35 million in Italy, and the U.K.; $20 million in Spain, and depending on whether your grade school geography teacher taught you Russia was part of Europe or Asia, over $40 million in that country, too. So it's not surprising that the Madagascar crew have wound their way into a European traveling circus, likely to visit popular European destinations, as can be seen in the trailer for Madagascar 3. ...

I don't think it's lost on DWA (or other cartoon studios) that animated features without U.S. environments in them do better overseas than movies with.

Monsters Vs. Aliens and MegaMind, both solid performers in the U.S. of A., did less well in foreign venues. Both of DreamWorks Animation's 2011 releases, by contrast, made lots of money in overseas markets.

I think the fact they're not American-themed had a lot to do with it. When I mentioned this to a DWA director, he allowed as how it's likely the case. (Can we prove this with certainty? Nope. But it's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.)