After a two-year absence from the screen, Hathaway starred as a famous actress in the all-female spin-off of the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise, "Ocean's 8", directed by Gary Ross. Co-starring Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, the film follows a group of criminals who plan to rob the Met Gala. Hathaway said she found it fun to play someone with an immense ego and saw the role as an opportunity "to lean into all the ridiculous fame nonsense that I've been trying to side-step for all of these years." Hathaway hoped that the film would be profitable so that it could debunk claims that films with female protagonists do not succeed commercially. Many critics felt that Hathaway's performance overshadowed those of her co-stars'; ABC Online's Jason Di Rosso wrote she "shines in disappointing" spin-off, adding, "the film's best moments belong to Hathaway as the anxiety-ridden, vain and capricious starlet. She's the only successful meld of comedy and pathos—a victim of the celebrity treadmill who is also capable of outsmarting it." The film became a box office success, earning a total of over $297 million worldwide on a production budget of $70 million.